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Ube Sbepberfc psalm 




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THE NORTHFIELD EDITION 



THE SHEPHERD PSALM 



V, Jg. B. MEYER, B. A. 



AUTHOR OF "THE TRESENT TENSES OF THE BLESSED 
LIFE," -'CHRISTIAN LIVING," ETC. 

ILLUSTRATED BY 

MARY A. LATHBU1 





FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
New York Chicago Toronto 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 












n- vtyoz 



Copyright, 1895, 

by 

Fleming H. Revell Company. 



^ 




TO 

D. L. MOODY, 

WITH LOVE AND THANKFULNESS FOR 

THE INSPIRATION OF HIS LIFE AND WORDS, FROM 

THE FAR-AWAY DAYS OF MY 

FIRST PASTORATE AT YORK, TO WEEKS OF 

HAPPY FELLOWSHIP IN NORTHFIELD 

CONVENTIONS. 





" The King of love my Shepherd is, 
Whose goodness faileth never ; 
I nothing lack if I am His, 
And He is mine forever. 



" Where streams of living water flow 
My ransomed soul He leadeth ; 
And where the verdant pastures grow, 
With food celestial feedeth. 



Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, 
But yet in love He sought me, 

And on His shoulder gently laid, 
And home, rejoicing, brought me. 

In death's dark vale I fear no ill 
With Thee, dear Lord, beside me : 

Thy rod and staff my comfort still, 
Thy cross before to guide me. 

Thou spread'st a table in my sight, 
Thy unction grace bestoweth, 

And, oh, what transport of delight 
From Thy pure chalice floweth! 




" And so through all the length of days 
Thy goodness faileth never. 
Good Shepherd! may I sing Thy praise 
Within Thy house forever." 

Henry W. Baker. 




preface to tl)e INortfjfidb (£bition 



In issuing this new and beautiful 
edition of " The Shepherd Psalm," my 
publishers ask me to write a few ad- 
ditional prefatory words. I do so with 
the greater pleasure as its issue affords 
me the opportunity of greeting my 
many readers across the Atlantic. 

Among the happiest reminiscences of 
my life are the visits already paid to 
America ; among the pleasantest an- 
ticipations, the hope of again minister- 
ing to God's children there. And it is 
good to know that, in whatever country 
we are found, under whatever sky, we 
are, through faith in the divine Saviour, 
members in the same body, sheep in the 
same flock, children of the one home. 
In this sense, already there is " no more 
sea." 

This little treatise has been specially 
5 




6 preface to tbe IRortbfielo Boitton 

used of God to comfort and help multi- 
tudes, largely, as I believe, because it 
lays so much stress on what the living 
Saviour is prepared to be to t^ose who 
know His voice and follow HimT^^^K 
There is too great a tendency among 
us to introspection, the minute scrutiny 
of motive and emotion, the effort at 
self-mortification and self-adjustment. 
In this there is great peril and much dis- 
couragement. It is happier and better 
far to look away from ourselves to Him 
on whom, as the divinely constituted 
Shepherd, the entire responsibility rests 
of bringing the weakest and most erring 
of the flock through the perils of this 
mortal life to the land where there is 
neither drought, nor thirst, nor over- 
shadowed gorge. 



f. ft. ynjuifiA. 



Christ Church, 

Westminster Bridge Road, London 

October i, 1895. *.-,<*- = 






Preface 

To see a masterpiece of painting on ^ 
the walls of an art-gallery while a throng 
of conventional sight-seers is pressing 
past is a very different matter to seeing 
it quietly on the walls of some stately 
mansion, when there is time to sit down 
and drink in the artist's thought, or 
catch the different lights of earlv morn- 
ing, of noon, or of the fading da)'. 

Perhaps the enjoyment is the more 
complete when some devoted lover of 
the work stands beside, telling the story 
of its daily effect upon his mind, and 
indicating subtle beauties which had 
escaped the first superficial gaze. 
7 




8 preface 

It is with some such intention that 
this book is sent forth — that, in the 
quiet of the sick-chamber or of the 
prayer-closet, attention may be again 
concentrated on this inimitable psalm ; 
that the familiar words may be consid- 
ered in the light of growing Christian 
experience ; and that perchance some 
unnoticed beauty may be suggested by 
one who seldom comes to it without 
discerning some fresh reason to thank 
the Spirit of Inspiration that He ever 
led the sweet minstrel of Scripture to 
indite the Shepherd Psalm. 

F. B. Meyer. 




W 





Contents 

PAGE 

I. The Psalm of Psalms n 

II. The Shepherd Lord 23 

III. Pastures of Tender Grass and 

Waters of Rest 38 

IV. " He Restoreth my Soul" 51 

V. The Shepherd's Leading 65 

VI. The Valley of Shadow 78 

VII. Comfort through the Rod and the 

Staff 94 

VIII. The Banquet 109 

IX. "Thou Anointest my Head with 

Oil" 127 

X. The Overflowing Cup 144 

XL The Cflestial Escort 162 

XII. "The House of the Lord Forever" 175 




■' ^■S' 




Gbe Xoro is mv. sbepbero; 1f sbail not 
want, 1be maketb me to lie oown in green 
pastures: be leaoetb me besioe tbe still 
waters. 1be restoretb mv. soul : be leaoetb 
me in tbe patbs ot rigbteousness tor bis 
name's sake. Uea, tbougb 11 walk tbrougb 
tbe valley of tbe sbaoow of oeatb, H will 
fear no evil: for tbou art witb me; tb£ 
roo ano tbg staff tbeg comfort me. Gbou 
preparest a table before me in tbe presence 
of mine enemies : tbou anointest tug beao 
witb oil; mg cup runnetb over. Surelg 
goooness ano mercv. sball follow me all 
tbe oa^s of tug life: ano 1f will owell in 
tbe bouse of tbe Xoro forever. 








QLijc |3salm of psalms 

This psalm has sometimes been called 
the Psalm of the Crook. It lies between 
the Psalm of the Cross and the Psalm 
of the Crown. If the Twenty-second 
tells of the Good Shepherd, who died, 
and if the Twenty-fourth tells of the 
Chief Shepherd, who is coming again, 
the Twenty-third tells of the Great 
Shepherd, who keeps His flock with 
unerring sagacity and untiring devotion. 
No hireling is He. He asks no wage ; 
He takes no reward. He counts not 
the cost. The sheep are His own. 
And in these sweet words we learn*-^ 






Gbe Sbepberfc jpsalm 

what He is toward them to-day, in all 
His shepherd tenderness and love. 

Some have spoken of this psalm as a 
creed. I have it on good authority that 
one thinker at least, wearied with the 
perplexing questions that agitate so 
many hearts and brains in this strange 
questioning age, and pressed to give 
some positive affirmation of his creed, 
began reciting these words with solemn 
pathos of voice and kindling rapture of 
eye. And when he had finished the 
whole psalm he added : " That is my 
creed. I need, I desire no other. I 
learned it from my mother's lips. I 
have repeated it every morning when I 
awoke for the last twenty years. Yet 
I do not half understand it ; I am only 
beginning now to spell out its infinite 
death will come on me 
with the task unfinished. But, by the 



Gbe psalm of psalms 



13 




grace of Jesus, I will hold on by this 
psalm as my creed, and will strive to 
believe it and to live it ; for I know that 
it will lead me to the cross, it will^guide 
me to glory." 

Yes, the testimony is true. And as' 
one looking into some priceless gem 
may see fountains of color welling up- 
ward from its depths, so, as we shall 
gaze into these verses, simple as child- 
hood's rhymes, but deep as an arch- 
angel's anthem, we shall see in them 
the gospel in miniature, the grace of 
God reflected as the sun in a dewdrop, 
and things which eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, nor the heart of man con- 
ceived. Read into these words the 
meaning of the Gospels, and you have 
an unrivaled creed, to which all Chris- 
tians may unhesitatingly assent. 

Others have spoken of it as a minstrel. 



f / 




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14 



Gbe Sbepberfc fl>6alm 



Before me lies a page that describes it 
in some such terms as these : that it is 
a pilgrim minstrel commissioned of God 
to travel up and down through the 
world, singing so sweet a strain that 
none who hear it can remember what- 
soever sorrow has been rending and 
tearing at the heart ! This, too, is true. 
This psalm speaks in language that the 
universal heart of man can comprehend. 
It exercises a spell that can charm away 
the griefs that bid a bold defiance to 
philosophy and mirth. 

" It has remanded to their dungeon 
more felon thoughts, more black doubts, 
more thieving sorrows, than there are 
sands on the sea-shore. It has com- 
forted the noble host of the poor. It 
has sung courage to the army of the 
I ^^disappointed. It has poured balm and 
// /(/consolation into the heart of the sick. 




**.i 

h.^ 









K'Hl 



& 
^ 



Zbc fl>salm of psalms is 

It has visited the prisoner and broken 
his chains, and, like Peter's angel, has 
led him forth in imagination, and sung 
him back to his home again. It has 
made the dying Christian slave freer 
than his master, and consoled those 
whom, dying, he left behind mourning, 
not so much that he was gone as be- 
cause they were left. Nor is its work 
done. It will go singing on through all 
the generations of time, and it will not 
fold its wings till the last pilgrim is safe 
and time ended ; then it shall fly back 
to the bosom of God, whence it issued, 
and sound on, mingled with all those 
harmonies of celestial joy which make 
heaven musical forever." 

But it may also be compared to the 
holy of holies of old — the inner shrine of 
that splendid temple which rose, noise- 
less as some tall palm, at the bidding of 








XLbc Sbepberfc psalm 

Solomon. However eager or noisy 
might be the tide of human life that 
throbbed and surged through the narrow 
streets of the Holy City, or even pulsed 
in the temple courts, yet there was 
always one quiet and undisturbed in- 
closure where angel guardians stretched 
out their wings in calm repose over the 
ark of God. There at least was rest ; 
and if the priestly occupants had only 
been allowed to tarry in that secret 
place of the Most High, surely they had 
forgotten the fret and rush of life under 
the spell of that unutterable repose. 
Dusty haste and restless anxiety must 
doff their garments and shoes ere they 
could enter there. 

And all this is the psalm before us. 
It is an oasis in the desert ; it is a bower 
on a hill of arduous climbing ; it is a 
grotto in a scorching noon ; it is a 







Zbc fl>salm of psalms 



17 



sequestered arbor for calm and heavenly 
meditation ; it is one of the most holy 
places in the temple of Scripture. 
Come hither, weary ones, restless ones, 
heavy-laden ones ; sit down in this cool 
and calm resort, while the music of its 
rhythm charms away the thoughts that 
break your peace. How safe and blessed 
are you to whom the Lord is Shepherd ! 
Put down this volume and repeat again, 
in holy reverie, the well-known words 
to the end, and see if they do not build 
themselves into a refuge on which the 
storms may break in vain. 

There is no question as to who wrote 
it — David's autograph is on every verse. 
But when and where did it first utter 
itself upon the ear of man? Was it 
sung first amid the hills of Bethlehem, 
as the sheep were grazing over the 
wolds, dotting them like chalkstones? 






18 



Gbe SbepberD ft>salm 




Or was it poured first upon the ear of 
the moody king, whose furrowed brow 
made so great a contrast to the fresh 
and lovely face of the shepherd lad, 
who was " withal of a beautiful counte- 
nance, and goodly to look to " ? It 
may have been. But there is a strength, 
a maturity, a depth, which are not 
wholly compatible with tender youth, 
and seem rather to betoken the touch 
of the man who has learned good by 
knowing evil, and who, amid the many 
varied experiences of human life, has 
fully tested the shepherd graces of the 
Lord of whom he sings. 

These words were surely first sung 
by one who had suffered deeply ; who 
had tasted many a bitter cup ; who had 
been compelled to thread his way 
through many a labyrinth and beneath 
many an overhanging, low-browed rock. 




Gbe psalm of psalms 19 

We are told, in Persian story, of a 
vizir who dedicated one apartment in 
his palace to the memory of earlier days, 
ere royal caprice had lifted him from 
lowliness to honor. There, in a tiny 
room with bare floors, was the simple 
equipment of shepherd life — the crook, 
the wallet, the coarse dress, the water- 
cruse ; and there he spent a part of each 
day, remembering what he had been, as 
an antidote to those temptations which 
beset men in the dazzling light of royal 
or popular favor. So David the king 
did not forget David the shepherd boy. 
There was a chamber in his heart 
whither he was wont to retire to medi- 
tate and pray ; and there it was that he 
composed this psalm, in which the 
mature experience of his manhood 
blends with the vivid memory of a boy- 
hood spent among the sheep. 



■MW 






£be SbepberO ipsalm 

This only we say further, as we close 
this meditation : that as this psalm hath 
7 irtue, which streams to heal those who 
touch, so it is true that its power lies in 
dwelling so little upon man and so much 
on God. See how every verse tells us 
what He is doing. This is the true 
policy of life. Unbelief puts circum- 
stances between itself and Christ, so as 
not to see Him; as the disciples did, 
through the mist, " and they cried out 
for fear." Faith puts Christ between 
itself and circumstances, so that it can- 
not see them " for the glory of that 
light." Unbelief fixes its gaze on men 
and things and likelihoods and possibil- 
ities and circumstances. Faith will not 
concern herself with these ; she refuses 
to spend her time and waste her strength 
in considering them. Her eye is fixed 
steadfastly on her Lord, and she is per- 




Gbe fl>salm of ftsalms 



2] 



suaded that He is well able to supply 
all her need and to carry her through 
all difficulties and straits. 

O trembling heart, look away and 



look 



up 



Your sorrows have been 



multiplied indeed by looking at difficul- 
ties and second causes. Now cease 
from all this. Talk no more about the 
walled cities and giants, about the 
rugged paths and dark valleys, about 
lions and robbers ; but think of the 
love, the might, and the wisdom of the 
Shepherd. Love that spared not its 
blood ! Might that made the worlds ! 
Wisdom that named the stars! Your 
salvation does not depend on what you 
are, but on what He is. For every look 
at self take ten looks at Christ. Cease 
using the first pronoun, and substitute 
for it the third. 

Tell us no more of your tears, yotj 








22 Gbe SbepbetO (psalm 

failures, or your sins ; but tell us, oh, 
tell us, of the all-sufficiency of Jesus, 
and how your needs have been the foil 
of His deliverances. Sing again the old 
song of how all wants are swallowed up 
in the shepherd love of God. And 
emphasize each " He " as you say again 
the psalm of childhood and of age. 




II 

' The Lord is my Shepherd 
I shall not want." 




\ N V 






Three thousand years have passed 
away since the sweet singer of Israel 
first sang this psalm about the shep- 
herd care of God. Thirty centuries! 
It is a long time. And in that vast 
abyss all the material relics of his life, 
however carefully treasured, have mol- 
dered into dust. 

The harp, from the strings of which 

his fingers swept celestial melody ; the 

tattered banner, which he was wont to 

23 




24 



Zbe SbepberD pealm 




uplift in the name of the Lord ; the 
well-worn book of the law, which was 
his meditation day and night ; the huge 
sword, with which he slew the giant ; 
the palace chamber, from which his 
spirit passed away to join the harpers 
harping with their harps — all these lie 
deep amid the debris of the ages. 

But this psalm — though old as the 
time when Homer sang or Solon gave 
his laws, and though trodden by the 
myriads of men in every succeeding 
age — is as fresh to-day as though it 
were just composed. Precious words! 
They are the first taught to our children, 
and perhaps the Holy Child Himself 
first learned to repeat them in the old 
Hebrew tongue beside His mother's 
knee in Nazareth ; and they are among 
the last that we whisper in the ear of 
our beloved ones, standing in the twi- 




Gbe SbcpberD XorD 

light between the darkening day of 
earth and the breaking day of heaven. 
The sufferer in the sick-chamber; the 
martyr at the stake ; the soldier on his 
sentry duty ; the traveler amid many 
perils; the Covenanter ; the Huguenot; 
the Vaudois — these, and a multitude 
which no man can number, have found 
in these words a lullaby for fear, an in- 
spiration to new life and hope. " The 
Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not 
want." 





" The Lord." It is printed in small 
capital letters, and wherever that is the 
case we know that it stands for the 
mystic word JEHOVAH. And so much 
in awe did the Jews stand of that awful 
name that they substituted for it some 
lesser word for God wherever it occurred 
in their public reading of sacred Scrip- 



^ — 



«H*#S&te^ 




Gbe SbepberD f>salm 

ture. Only once a year was it pro- 
nounced, and that on the great day of 
Atonement, by the high priest in the 
most holy place. 

Jehovah means the Living One, the 
self- existent Being, the I AM ; He who 
was and is and is to come, who inhab- 
iteth eternity, who hath life in Himself. 
All other life, from the aphid on the 
rose-leaf to the archangel before the 
throne, is dependent and derived. All 
others waste and change and grow old ; 
He only is unchangeably the same. 
All others are fires, which He supplies 
with fuel ; He alone is self-sustained. 
This mighty Being is our Shepherd. 
Lift up your heart to Him in lowly 
adoration, and say, " Give ear, O Shep- 
herd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph 
like a flock ; Thou that dwellest between 
the cherubim, shine forth." 





Cbe SbepbetD XcrD 27 

But as we travel in thought down the 
ages we meet a gentle, weary Man on 
whom the shadow of coming sorrow 
hangs darkly. He is speaking within a 
few miles of the spot where these words 
had been first uttered some twelve hun- 
dred years before. Is it treason? Is it 
blasphemy ? Is it the raving of lunacy ? 
No ; with all the marks of self-possession 
and sober truth He takes up these very 
words, and applying them to Himself, 
He says, " I am the Good Shep- 
herd." 

Combine these two — the august word 
for the everlasting God and the tender 
word for the Saviour — and we have a 
worthy title for our Lord, Jehovah- 
Jesus. Let us read it into our psalm, 
and say, with a new appreciation of its 
meaning, " Jehovah-Jesus is my Shep- 
herd." What need can we have which 



5y*g^5^ 




Gbe SbepbevD ipsalm 



may not be met by this twofold na- 
ture? As Jehovah He has all power; 
as Jesus all sympathy. As Jehovah He 
sustains all worlds ; as Jesus He ever 
liveth to make intercession. As Jehovah 
He is sovereign Lord of all ; as Jesus 
He still treads the pathways of this 
world by our side, whispering sweetly 
and softly in our ears, " Fear not, little 
flock." 




"Shepherd." That precious word 
for God was uttered first by Jacob — him- 
self once a shepherd — as he lay a-dying 
in his hieroglyphed chamber, and with 
the long thoughts of old age went back 
to the imagery of his early life, speaking 
of God as having " shepherded him all 
his life long." All through the Bible 
the golden thread runs, until in its clos- 
ing pages we read of the Lamb who 



XZbe Sbepberd %ovt> 



29 



leads His flock to the river of water 
of life. 



The Eastern shepherd Occupied quite 
a unique position toward his flock, and 
a friendship sprang up between him and 
the dumb creatures of his care to which 
there is no counterpart among ourselves. 
Let us think ourselves into that rela- 
tionship. In the early morning he 
would lead his flock from their fold to 
the pasture-lands. All day he must 
closely watch, lest harm should come to 
them from prowling beasts of prey or 
robber hordes. To the still waters he 
must lead them, that they may drink 
where no current shall frighten or en- 
danger them. And at night he must 
conduct them back to the security of 
the fold. At a certain season of the 
year he must lead them yet farther 
afield, far away from his own home and 







30 Gbe Sbepberfc psalm 

the haunts of men, where he will live 
among them, scorched by the heat at 
noon and drenched by the dews at 
night. Should one of the lambs be 
unable to keep pace with the rest of the 
flock he must carry it in his bosom. 
Should one of his flock go astray he 
must search for it until he finds it, 
tracking it by the tufts of wool left in 
the briers and thorns. Should danger 
assail he must be prepared to risk his 
life. Shepherds in the East look like 
warriors armed for fight — the gun slung 
over the shoulder, pistols at the belt, 
and club in hand. ^*" 

Living on such terms, the shepherd 
and his flock are almost friends. They^ 
know him and answer to their names. 
Some always follow close behind him, 
as his especial favorites, sure of his love. 
He can do .almost as he wills with anv 



Cbe SbepberD %ovb 

of them, going freely in and out among 
them without exciting the slightest 
symptom of alarm. 

Now all this is true of our Lord Jesus, 
that Great Shepherd of the sheep. He 
has a shepherd's heart, beating with 
pure and generous love that counted 
not His life-blood too dear a price to 
pay down as our ransom. He has a 
shepherd's eye, that takes in the whole 
flock, and misses not even the poor 
sheep wandering away on the mountains 
cold. He has a shepherd' s faithfuhiess, 
which will never fail nor forsake, nor 
leave us comfortless, nor flee when He 
seeth the wolf coming. He has a shep- 
herd's strength, so that He is well able 
to deliver us from the jaw of the lion or 
the paw of the bear. He has a shep- 
herd's tenderness — no lamb so tiny that 
He will not carry it ; no saint so weak 




.-Jk " S 




^ 





Cbe Sbepberfc psalm 

that He will not gently lead ; no soul 
so faint that He will not give it rest. 
He pities as a father. He comforts as 
a mother. His gentleness makes great. 
He covers us with His feathers, soft and 
warm and downy ; and under His wings 
do we trust. "^^^^ 

Ah, He has done more! "All we 
like sheep have gone astray ; we have 
turned every one to his own way." 
Punishment and disaster were immi- 
nent ; but Jesus, from His throne in 
eternity, saw the danger and was filled 
with compassion for the multitudes 
which were as sheep not having a shep- 
herd. Therefore, because He w r as the 
Shepherd, He offered to give His own 
life as the substitute; and God laid on 
Him the iniquity of us all. Then was 
heard the terrible summons, " Awake, O 
sword, against My Shepherd, and against 





£be SbepberD XorD 

the Man that is My fellow, saith the 
Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd." 
" He laid down His life for the sheep," 
and thus redeemed the flock by the 
blood of the everlasting covenant. 
Praise Him! Praise Him! 

" My." What a difference comes 
in with that little word my ! " The 
child is dead! " said one of the farm- 
servants who had carried the sick boy 
to his mother; "My child is dead! " 
said the mother. " This estate is well 
known to me ; I have trodden every 
mile of it from childhood./' so speaks 
the gray-headed bailiff; " This is my 
estate," thus speaks the heir. So in 
religion the difference between know- 
ledge and appropriation is simply infi- 
nite. It makes all the difference between 
being saved or lost whether you say, 





Zhc Sbepberfc ipsalm 



" Jesus is a Saviour " or " Jesus has saved 
me"; whether you say, "The Lord is 
a Shepherd " or " The Lord is my 
Shepherd; I shall not want." Even if, 
like Thomas, you could see the Saviour 
in the clear light of reality, and have 
every doubt removed, and His hands 
offered to your touch, yet it would avail 
you but little unless you could appro- 
priate Him by saying, " My Lord and 
my God." 

Jesus waits to be appropriated. He 
is not content to be a Shepherd, a Good 
Shepherd, the Shepherd of the holy 
angels, the Shepherd and Bishop of 
countless redeemed ones. His travail 
over you will not be satisfied till you 
put your hand on Him and say, " My 
Shepherd." And you may do that if 
you will. There is nothing to hinder 
you. Do not tarry to inquire if you 





Gbe SbepberD %ort> 



35 



are one of His sheep ; look away from 
yourself to Him, and see if He be not 
well qualified to be your Shepherd. 
And the first cry of "Mine!" on 
your part will be a certain indication 
that you are included in that flock which 
He is leading through many a tangled 
brake to the one fold of heaven. " The 
Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want." 

'' I SHALL NOT WANT." Amid all 
the sorrow and want of the world the 
Lord's sheep are well supplied. The 
cry of the worldling is contained m the 
weary confession, " I perish with hun- 
ger." But the boast of the saint rings 
through the glad assurance, " My God 
shall supply all your need according to 
His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 
His hired servants have bread enough 
and to spare ; how much more His own ! 





Gbe SbepberO psalm 



" The young lions do lack, and suffer 
hunger: but they that seek the Lord 
shall not want any good thing." 

Your experiences may seem to con- 
tradict that glad announcement ; but 
perhaps you have not by faith sought 
and appropriated the supplies which 
have been placed ready to your hand ; 
or you have not made your requests 
known unto God with prayer and sup- 
plication ; or your hour of need has not 
yet fully come ; or you have misunder- 
stood your real need, and are asking for 
something which would do you harm. 
In one of these directions you must seek 
the reason of the apparent disparity 
between these glad, triumphant words 
and your own experience. For it is 
true forevermore that " there is no want 
to them that fear Him." He is able to 
make all grace abound, and He does 



Sifiira 



ff^m 



.w 



j i 




Gbe Sbepberfc 3LorD 

make all grace abound. To Him be the 
glory for ever and ever! 

Oh, bind this bright assurance to 
your heart; and whatever perils may 
menace and threaten you, whatever 
wants may assail, go forward, stepping 
out into the dark, encouraging your 
heart by this sweet refrain : " The Lord 
is my Shepherd; I shall not want." 









r 



^-rt&toM&edffih- * ' : -~ 




y 



in 

Postures of (ftenber (Srass ana 
tOatcrs of ttcst 

" He maketh me to lie down 
In green pastures : 

He leadeth me beside the still waters." 

In this sweet pastoral symphony, the 
first verse gives the air, when it tells us 
that there is no want to the man who 
lives under the shepherd care of God. 
In the succeeding verses the harmony 
is worked out, and the music in all its 
completeness is rendered effectively. 
V The first want which, according to 
this verse, he who belongs to Christ 
shall never know is the want of rest. 
38 




Ipastures of Genoer Grass 



3D 



This verse breathes the very spirit of 
rest, as is even more apparent in a more 
literal rendering of the words. It may 
be rendered thus: " He maketh me to 
lie down in pastures of tender grass : 
He leadeth me f rJeside the waters of 
rest." 

What a delightful scene is thus con- 
jured up before our fancy ! It is the 
scorching hour of an Eastern noon. 
The air is stifling with fever-heat, and 
all the landscape is baking in the awful 
glare. The very stones upon the hills 
burn the feet that touch them. At 
such a time woe be to the flock without 
a shepherd ; and to the shepherd who 
cannot find the blue shade of some 
great rock, the shelter of some bushy 
dell, or the rich and luscious pasturage 
of some lowland vale ! 

But there is no such failure here. 






40 



Gbe SbepberD fl>salm 



See where the pellucid stream is rolling 
its tide through the level plain. Higher 
upward in its bed, when it was starting 
on its course, it foamed and fretted over 
its rocky channel, leaped from ledge to 
ledge, chafed against its restraining 
banks, and dashed itself into a mass of 
froth and foam. No sheep would have 
drank of it then ; for the flocks will 
never drink of turbid or ruffled streams. 
But now it sweeps quietly onward as if 
it were asleep — there is hardly a ripple 
on its face ; every flower and tree and 
sedge, as well as the overhanging banks, 
is clearly mirrored on its surface, and 
every stone in its bed may be clearly 
seen ; on its banks the pasture is always 
green and luxuriant, carpeted in spring 
by a thousand flowers ; the very air is 
cooled by its refreshing presence, and 
the ear is charmed by the music of its 







pastures ot GenDer (Brass "41 

purling waters. No drought can come 
where that river flows ; and the flocks, 
satisfied by browsing on the tender 
»s, lie down satisfied and at rest. 




We ALL NEED rest. There must 
be pauses and parentheses in all our 
lives. The hand cannot ever be plying 
its toils. The brain cannot always be 
elaborating trains of thought. The 
faculties and senses cannot always be 
on the strain. To work without rest is 
like overwinding a watch ; the main- 
spring snaps and the machinery stands 
still. There must be a pause frequently 
interposed in life's busy rush wherein 
we can recuperate exhausted nerves and 
lowered vitality. There is more per- 
manence than many think in the com- 
mandment which bids us rest one day 
in seven. 



42 



Gbe Sbepberfc fl>aalm 





But there is no part of our nature 
that cries more urgently for rest, than 
our spiritual life. The spirit of man, 
like the dove, cannot always be wander- 
ing with unresting wing ; it must alight. 
We cannot ever be traveling up the 
rugged mountain pass of difficulty, or 
traversing the burning marl of discon- 
tent. We must be able to lie down in 
green pastures or to pass gently along 
the waters of rest. There are three 
things needed ere sheep or human 
spirits can rest. 

i. A consciousness of safety. The 
growl of a lion, the bark of a dog, the 
presence of a little child, will be quite 
sufficient to spoil the rest of a flock of 
sheep and to drive them trembling and 
timid into an affrighted group. And 
how can we rest so long as we feel our- 
selves liable to the attack of the roaring 




pastures of Eenoer Grass 



4:) 



lion of the pit? Who can rest so long 
as eternal destinies lie uncertainly in the 
balance? 



Against all this our Shepherd Jesus 
has provided. He has Himself met the 
great adversary of our souls, and has 
forever broken his power. We can 
never forget that fearful conflict be- 
tween the two — the malice of the one ; 
the strong cryings and tears, the anguish 
and bloody sweat, of the other. It was 
not a time when we could throw the 
balance of our weight into one scale or 
the other ; we were rather the prize for 
which the battle was fought through the 
long and weary hours. On the one 
hand stood cruel hate and bloodthirsty 
destruction ; on the other was mercy 
yearning to deliver, although at the cost 
of bitter agony and wounds, of which 
the scars shall remain forever. In the 




I 



44 Zbe SbepbcrD psalm 

end the Good Shepherd gave His life 
for the sheep. No hireling coward He! 
His all was at stake. The flock was 
His own, given Him by His Father; 
and He laid down His life for it. 

But in that death He slew our 
enemy ; as two antlered champions of 
the woods have sometimes been discov- 
ered side by side in death, because the 
one, in his own death-throes, had struck 
the other with a mortal wound. But 
God " brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
sheep, through the blood of the ever- 
lasting covenant." And now He lives 
to guarantee our safety. He has suf- 
fered all that there is to suffer. He has 
mastered all the opposition that there 
is to encounter. He has secured us ever- 
lasting deliverance from the slaughter- 
knife, from the demands of the divine 




pastures of Senoer (Srass 



45 




law, and from the consequences of our 
own sins. ''Who is He that condemn- 
eth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, 
that is risen again." 

And now, O timid soul, be at rest! 
The blood-red brand which is upon thee 
is a sure token that thou art safe. He 
cannot have done so much for thee to 
lose thee now. In all moments of peril 
or dread softly murmur his name, Jesus! 
Jesus! and He will at once comfort thee 
by His presence and by His voice, which 
all the sheep know ; and this shall be 
His assurance: "My sheep shall never 
perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of My hand." 

"The Lord is thy Keeper." "We 
know that whosoever is begotten of God 
sinneth not ; but he that was begotten 
of God keepeth him, and the evil one 
toucheth him not" (i John v. i8,R.V.). 



*K -. 






£be SbepbevD ipsalm 

2. Sufficiency of food. A hungry 
sheep will not lie down. Main force 
will fail in making it do so. But the 
shepherd who can provide it with plenty 
of good pasturage will soon bring the 
most restless animal to lie contentedly 
among the fragrant herbage, while birds 
may settle on its woolly back and bees 
murmur drowsily around. 

We can never rest so long as the 
hunger of the spirit is unappeased and 
its thirst unslaked. Strange that men 
are so slow to realize this! Yet the 
whole drift of human life seems impelled 
by the aching void within. Conscious 
of their hunger, men try to satisfy it 
with the husks that the swine eat ; but 
they try in vain. And there is no 
answer to the unrest of the inward man 
- until the voice of Jesus is heard saying, 







% 



4 



pastures ot Genfcec <3rass 

" He that cometh to Me shall never 
hunger ; and He that believeth on Me 
shall never thirst." 

Oh to eat of the flesh of the Son of 
man and to drink His blood — in hours 
of devout reverie, in moments of rapt 
and intimate communion ! This is life. 
This is eternal satisfaction. Here are 
pasture-lands indeed, and the rivers of 
His pleasures. 

The Word of God may fitly be com- 
pared to green pastures. There is 
nourishment there for all hungry hearts 
— " enough and to spare." Nor do these 
pastures ever become barren or sear. 
They are as green and fresh to-day as 
when they were first issued by the Holy 
Spirit. Though multitudes of com- 
mentators have considered them, and 
myriads of Christians have studied and 





48 



Gbe SbepberD jpsalm 



conned them, they cannot be pondered 
by a loving and obedient heart without 
yielding nutriment and strength. 

There are many spiritual realities 
corresponding to the waters of rest. 
What is the Lord's day but a water of 
rest ; or the hour of worship ; or the 
long period of illness and convalescence ; 
or the summer holiday ; or the long- 
halcyon period of spiritual prosperity, 
when it would almost seem as though 
Satan had forgotten to tempt? At 
such times it is sweet to know that He 
who anon led to war or work is now^lC 
leading to rest. 

And in some cases, in the midst of 
life's rush and pleasure, He beckons us 
aside to rest with Him awhile, that we 
may have leisure to eat. He causes 
our hearts to keep Sabbath and be at 
peace. He makes us drink of the brook 




V 



pastures of Genoa* (Brass 



49 



M 



WW 



by the way, and at noon we rest with 
His flock in the blue shade of the Rock ,1 




in the weary land 

3. Obedience to the Shepherd' 's lead. 
The tenderest shepherd cannot bring 
a flock of sheep to rest unless they 
follow him. If they lag far behind 
him, if they go astray from him, if they 
take their own several ways, then, how- 
ever good the shepherd's intentions, 
they cannot but be thwarted and frus- 
trated. " My sheep," said Christ, " hear 
My voice, and I know them, and they 
follow Me." 

This test of following the Shepherd's 
lead is most important. It is by no 
means wonderful that we lose our rest 
when we run hither and thither, follow- 
ing the devices and desires of our own y 
evil hearts. We substitute our plansv • 
for His. We insist on our schemes and <A 



... ^-f^ 





Cbe SbepberD psalm 




stratagems. We crowd our days with 
much of our own, in addition to some- 
thing of His. We do not look up often 
enough to see which way He is going 
and what He would have us to do. 
And so our rest is broken and lost. 
We must follow the Lamb whitherso- 
ever He goeth if we would be led to 
the living fountains of waters, which are 
fed from heavenly springs. 

Oh, sigh not for the rest of God as if 
it were impossible for thee ! The Good 
Shepherd waits to make thee lie down, 
and to give thee to drink long, deep 
drafts of rest. Only trust Him! Hand 
over to Him all that breaks the stillness 
of thy spirit, though it be but a gnat- 
sting; and take from Him His own 
deep, sweet rest. Claim that He should 
make thee lie down by the arts of His 
gentle compulsion. 




^n^ 










IV 



"§t ftestoret!) tttg Soul 

THESE words are among the most 
precious in this priceless psalm. They 
speak to the experience of many chil- 
dren of God, who are deeply conscious 
of the need of the restoring grace of the 
Good Shepherd. If He were alone to 
be followed, and if His influences upon 
us were always instantly and wholly 
obeyed, there would be no need of 
restoration. But we are not always 
susceptible and obedient to the heavenly 
leadings ; we easily relapse into states 
of lethargy and indifference, and it is 
necessary that we should be restored. 





52 Gbe SbepberD jpsalm 

The most fruitful source of spiritual 
declension is the neglect of the Word of 
God and of private devotion. Just so 
long as the spirit of man keeps on terms 
of intimacy with the loving Spirit of 
God, while the Bible is regularly and 
prayerfully studied and the habit of 
retirement is maintained, there will be 
a regular growth in grace and in the 
knowledge and love of God. 

If only the golden pipes are kept free 
and unclogged, there will be an uninter- 
rupted flow of the golden oil to feed 
the flame of a holy life. We know all 
this. Our hearts have often tasted the 
sweet refreshment and holy encourage- 
ment which are found in these quiet, 
blessed hours spent in the most holy 
place. We know that there is nothing 
which is more productive of all that 
makes life worth having than commu- 



i 





"1be IRestoretf m£ Soul" 53 

nion with God. And yet this is the one 
^exercise which we are most prone to 
- hurry or neglect. The chapters of the 
Word of God are skimmed as a duty, 
as the surface of a mountain lake is 
touched here and there by the breast 
of the wild-fowl ; while the morning or 
evening prayer is uttered so coldly and 
perfunctorily that it had almost better 
have been unsaid. Is it, then, to be 
wondered at that the energies of the 
spiritual life decline, and sadly need the 
interposition of some strong, wise hand 
to restore? 

Unconfessed sin is another cause of 
swift spiritual decline. If there be a 
cause of disagreement, however trivial, 
among friends, they shrink from meet- 
ing ; or if they meet, there is a coldness 
and restraint which is the more evident 
and painful in proportion to the warmth 







Cbe SbepberD pealm 




and intimacy of their previous attach- 
ment. There can be no more heart- 
union till the cause of estrangement has 
been probed, and the wrong confessed 
or the misunderstanding explained. 
And the same principle obtains in the 
relationship of the soul with God. 
When we sin there is generally a ten- 
dency to imitate Adam and Eve in their 
concealment beneath the foliage of the 
garden. Before that sad yielding is the 
temptation of the devil. The happiest 
hour in all the day was that in which, 
as the evening breeze shed a delicious 
cool on the tropic heat, the voice of the 
Lord God was heard summoning them 
to commune with Him. But that sin 
makes the thought of fellowship unwel- 
come. Similarly we have learned again 
and again that unconfessed sin casts a 
dark shadow over our fellowship with 



1be IRestoretb mg Sour' 




God, and makes it irksome or perfunc- 
tory. Then we begin to exchange the 
open heart for the averted one, and put 
on the shy look and the formal phrase. 
And if the sin is not instantly confessed 
and put away, the little rift within the lute 
will widen, until it make the music mute. 
Worldly society, with all its accesso- 
ries, is another fruitful source of spiritual 
decline. It is impossible to spend much 
time amid the trifling talk, the inane 
conversation, the banter, the ridicule, 
the empty literature, the frivolous pur- 
suits of what is called " society," with- 
out losing much of the fine edge, the 
holy temper of the soul. Man cannot 
touch a butterfly's wing without rubbing 
away some of the delicate down that 
covers it with microscopic feathers ; and 
we are equally unable to be constantly 
living in the atmosphere of the salons 




Gbe Sbepberfc ipsalm 

of this world without sacrificing r that 
indescribable delicacy and holiness of 
character which is God's choicest gift. 

Of course, if the Lord Jesus sends us 
into the world to work for Him He will 
keep us there. But we shall soon de- 
cline in spiritual health if we choose to 
live there ; just as the country maiden 
will lose her bright, healthy color, and 
show signs of consumption, if she always 
lives in the stifling atmosphere of the 
overcrowded room and amid the un- 
wholesome conditions of our city life. 

Neglect of some known command will 
also soon pull down the strongest spirit- 
ual health into the weakness of disease 
and decline. If only all the Christians 
who are now fencing with some known 
command of Christ would dare to obey 
it there would be one of the greatest 
revivals that we have ever seen. You 






u 1be IRestoretb mg Sour* 



57 



sometimes meet Christians who tell you 
that they used to be deeply " exercised " 
on certain matters 

What does that word " exercr^ 
mean? Does it not mean that Christ 
was testing them by a certain definite 
command, and that they were, in point 
of fact, resisting Him, choosing their 
own way rather than His? And if this 
" exercise " of soul has stayed, what is 
the cause save this? — that the gracious 
Master has had the direct negative so 
clearly given Him that it is of no further 
use for Him to ply the disobedient 
spirit, and so He has withdrawn from it. 
It may be saved, " so as by fire." But 
it can never know His tenderest love, 
or be used by Him for His loftiest 
ministry. 

There are many signs of the declen- 
sion of the soul : its restlessness ; its 

&If~ ■ 

ft?- 



ft 



oS^i 




<^^5^ 




58 



Cbe SbepberD psalm 



V 



-*t* 




spirit of captious complaining ; its want 
of interest in the concerns of Christ's 
kingdom ; its inability to testify for 
Christ or against sin ; its unwillingness 
to admit that it is any different to what 
it used to be ; its wincing beneath con- 
tact with the Word of God faithfully 
preached, and with the experience of 
others who are living in soul-health and 
in happy fellowship with God. Just as 
we have met with people afflicted with 
an insidious and dangerous disease who 
yet refuse to consider themselves so, 
and who fight against the desire of their 
friends to summon medical aid, so one 
phase of spiritual decline is the attempt 
to turn aside all suggestions of its pres- 
ence, although gnawing the vitals of the 
heart. Then follows the sad admission, 
extorted as the years go on, that things 



\i 



% 




"1be IRestoretb m^ Soul" 

are not as they were ; which is followed 
by the hopeless conclusion that they 
cannot now be mended. 

How welcome it is to turn to the re- 
storing grace of the Saviour/ Nature 
is full of great restorative processes. 
Directly a rent is made in her hillsides 
she begins to festoon it with grasses, 
ferns, and creepers. When a wound is 
caused in our flesh, and the red blood 
breaks through the broken rampart as 
it passes, it begins to build up the 
breach, so that presently soundness 
takes the place of the lacerated aperture. 
Even when a rent is caused in our 
families by the death of some dear in- 
valid, whose presence had given a new 
thoughtfulness to all the inmates, and 
whose death makes a breach almost 
irreparable to the survivors, then time 





60 



Gbe Sbepberfc ipsalm 



with its healing influences begins to 
repair the yawning void. 

So, spiritually, the blessed Spirit of 
God is ever brooding over human hearts 
to do His choice and beloved work of 
reparation and restoration. When the 
sheep is missing from the flock He goes 
after the truant until He finds it, and 
restores it to its place among the rest. 
When one piece is missing from the 
completed circle of His crown, one jewel 
from His breastplate, He rests not till it 
is replaced. When one child is away 
in a far country His own joy is at an end 
till he is back. 

O gentle, tender-hearted, pitiful Sav- 
iour, how eager Thou art in pursuing 
these Thy chosen ministries to Thy 
weak and unworthy children! 

Christ uses many restorative minis- 
tries. Sometimes it is the word of a 




,. .s# : 









"1be IRestoretb nig Sour* 

friend or minister. Or it may be a 
hymn breathing the fragrance of a holy 
heart and speaking of a happier past. 
Or it may be a paragraph, a sentence, 
in some biography or religious treatise. 
Not unfrequently it happens in this 
wise : you are away in the country, 
walking solitarily and moodily, when 
there is a burst of sunbeams, or of song- 
notes from the brake ; or, without any 
natural cause, you are suddenly aware 
of the gentle, thawing, all-pervasive in- 
fluence of the grace of God, which 
touches the deepest springs of the heart, 
and softens it, and leads it to contrition 
and prayer. Is not this experience 
something like that resulting from the 
look which Jesus cast at Peter, and 
which sent him out to weep bitterly, 
and was the first stage in his restora- *jk J^ 
tion? 





Gbe SbepberD psalm 

Let those who want to understand 
the whole philosophy of restoration read 
the marvelous story of the way in which 
the Good Shepherd restored the soul of 
His erring apostle. We can only enu- 
merate the stages here. He prayed for 
him and warned him. From the midst of 
the rough crew that did their will on Him, 
" He turned, and looked upon Peter " 
— not angrily nor harshly, but with the 
tenderest reproach. He gave a special 
message to the angels that they should 
bid the women summon Peter amid the 
rest on the resurrection morning, show- 
ing how constantly he had been in the 
Saviour's heart all through His sorrows. 
He met him alone on the world's first 
Easter day, and permitted him to pour 
out the story of his sorrow unrestrained 
by the presence of any besides them- 
selves. He gave him an opportunity of 





" 1be IRestoretb m£ Soul 



63 




thrice attesting his love, to wipe out the 
memory of the thrice denial. And this 
is not more than He will do for any of 
us. 

Oh, do not wait for days or weeks to 
elapse ere you apply to Him for His 
restoring grace; but just as you are, 
dare to trust Him to do it now. While 
the throb of passion is still beating high, 
and the deed of shame is recent, look 
up to Him, and claim forgiveness first, 
and in the same breath ask Him to put 
you back immediately in the very place 
which you occupied before you fell. 
And then, though as yet no answering 
joy thrills your heart, you will be able 
to exclaim, in the assurance of faith, 
'' He restoreth my soul." 

Yes, and for those who dare to claim 

', it there is another promise still more 

reassuring, which tells us that " He will 






64 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 



restore the years that the canker-worm 
has eaten " — giving back to us oppor- 
tunities and privileges which we ma\ 
seem to have forfeited forever. 





fL'Wvte 



'*£&■'-■ 



-ffft 



V 



He leadeth me in the path of righteousness 
For His name's sake." 




" He leadeth me." What a wondrous 
link between those two personal pro- 
nouns ! The chasm between the Shep- 
herd in glory and His poor sheep might 
seem to be an infinite one ; but it is 
bridged by this one sweet, tender word 
" leadeth." As in the East the shep- 
herd always precedes the flock, to dis- 
cover the greenest patches of grass and 
the least stony path, so does Jesus ever 
keep in front of the soul that trusts and 
65 




^£? 



X 



06 Zbe SbepberO jpsalm 

loves Him. And it is our art to allow 
as small a space as possible to intervene 
between His footsteps and our own. 

We must be willing to be led. There 
is so much natural impetuosity in us to 
shoot on in front and "prospect" for 
ourselves. Is that not so? And out 
of this restlessness there arises so much 
of the fret and chafe and disappointment 
of life. We think we can do so much 
better for ourselves than Christ can do 
for us. We doubt whether there is not 
something outside the limit of His will 
which it might be worth our while to 
snatch at. We are inclined to run be- 
fore or linger behind, or go off to forage 
on the right and left. We take a long 
time ere we learn that the place of use- 
fulness and blessedness is in following 
the lead of Jesus. We are much more 
liable to imitate some scheme which our 




i 




Gbe SbepberO's^Xeafcing 



judgment may have passed after a hur- 
ried hearing of its claims than to ask 
where Christ wants us to be and whither 
He is leading. 

The one ambition of our being should 
be to be sure that we are resolutely 
following the Shepherd whithersoever 
He goeth ; according to His own assur- 
ance, when He putteth forth His own 
sheep, " He goeth before them, and the 
sheep follow Him." 

These words make a considerable de 
maud upon our fait Ji. Of old the apos- 
tles could see Him in front of them as 
He went up to Jerusalem, and they 
followed Him in fear. But that is 
impossible now. We cannot see that 
gracious form treading earth's dreary 
pathways and casting its shadow upon 
the sands of time. We love Him whom 
we have not seen. We follow Him 




Cbe Sbepberfc ipsalm 

whom we cannot behold. But though 
He be viewless as the air, or as the 
attraction by which the sun conducts 
the worlds through space, yet His lead- 
ings are distinctly discernible by the 
trusting, loving heart. 

We detect His leadings in many ways. 
In the drift of His example and in the 
direction of His advice contained in the 
Gospels ; in the counsel of a friend, the 



<<*- .'f#2?3 message of a sermon, the monition of a 
text flashed into our memories ; as well 
as in those inner promptings of His 
Spirit which come we know not whence, 
and bear us we know not whither. 
Sometimes the way opens up before us 
quite marvelously where it had seemed 
closed ; as when a vessel, threading her 
way through a labyrinth of rock, finds 
a space of shining water beckoning it 
from the jaws of reef which threatened 




S^ 




Cbe SbepberD's Ueafctng 



69 



it. At other times a strange impulse 
seizes us, which, after due thought and 
prayer, we are constrained to follow. 

This only we would insist upon: if 
you do not know which way to go, wait 
till you are sensible of the leadings of 
the Good Shepherd. Your life is won- 
derfully interesting to Him ; every step 
of it is the subject of His thought. It 
will be a sore mistake and wrong for 
you to act without being sure of what 
He wishes you to do. And if you are 
not sure what that is, it is evident that 
the time has not yet come for you to 
move. Stay just where you are. If 
you dare to wait you will be clearly 
shown your path, and the revelation 
will not come a moment too late. 

Oh, do not say that you are so stupid 
that you can never know His will. You 
always were dull of apprehension, and 







Cbe SbcpberD fl>ealm 




your very nervousness to understand 
aright has sometimes made you too 
flurried clearly to apprehend the sim- 
plest directions. But obtuseness of the 
intellect matters little to Christ. He 
can deal with that, and He will. If He 
cannot make you understand in one 
way, He will in another. It is the busi- 
ness of the Shepherd to lead the willing 
sheep aright. The only thing which 
obstructs His guidance is the obtuseness 
of the heart and will ; we are frequently 
too self-willed or too impetuous to await 
His time. 

In the previous verse the psalmist 
declared that the Shepherd led beside 
still waters ; and the inference might 
have been that when the feet w T ere cut 

£ \ or the muscles strained by the clamber 
^V, up the rocky mountain track, or that 

{/ 'If when the course lay amid deep, damp 






mh& 



m 



iM 




Gbe Sbepberfc's XeaDtng 



71 




glens overshadowed by heavy forests 

and overhanging rocks — that at such 

times the sheep was following" its own tw^^& 

wild way, outside the tender guidance 

of its Lord. And so the psalmist takes 

up the metaphor again, and tells us that 

there are other walks by which the 

Shepherd is leading us to our home. 

Not always beside the gentle streamlet 

flow, but sometimes by the foaming 

torrent. Not always over the delicate 

grass, but sometimes up the stony 

mountain track. Not always in the 

sunshine, but sometimes through the 

valley of the shadow of death. But 

whichever way it is, it is the right way, 

and it is the way home. 

Christ's leadings are always along 
"paths of righteousness." And what 
are these but right paths? They are 
not only consistent with the divine rec- 




y 



Zbe SbepberD ipsalm 



titude, but they are justified by the 
review of the spirit, when in after-days, 
looking back on them from the eminence 
to which they have led, it confesses that 
they were right paths. 

You hesitate at this. You say that 
you cannot feel that God's ways with 
you have been right. You are puzzled 
by their mystery. You are almost 
driven to despair by their mazy difficul- 
ties, their inexorable demands. Such 
feelings are not to be marveled at as 
you sob them out in the ear of God. 
And He is very pitiful ; " for He know- 
eth our frame ; He remembereth that 
we are dust." 

Only do not judge God's ways while 
they are in progress. Wait till the plan 
is complete. Wait till the tapestry is 
finished, and you can see the other side 





Ibe SbepbetO's XeaDJng 



V 



where the pattern will be worked out. 
Wait till the silver-paper is torn off the 
worsted-work and the blending of the 
^J/ colors is disclosed. Wait till you have 
got out of the vale to the mountain 
brow. Wait till, in the light of eternity, 
God can call you aside and reveal to 
you His purposes. 

Meanwhile, trust! " All His paths 
drop fatness." " All the paths of the 
Lord are mercy and truth." If it is 
true that " His path is in the mighty 
waters," it is also true that He leads 
" by a right way to the city of habita- 
tion." Let us not judge God by an 
incomplete or unfinished scheme ; let us 
have patience till the end shall justify 
the path by which we came. In the 
breaking dawn of eternity we shall dis- 
cover that God could not have brought 







Gbe SbepberO ipsalm 

us by another route which would have 
been as expeditious or as safe as the one 
by which we have come. 

Would that we had the faith to look 
up from every trying circumstance, from 
every fretting worry, from every annoy- 
ance and temptation, into the face of 
our Guide, and say, " It is the right 
way, Thou great Shepherd of the sheej 
lead Thou me on i 



" Lead Thou me on, 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 
The night is gone ! " 



But we do not need to plead with 
Him for this. He is pledged to do it 
for the sake of His own great name. 
" He leadeth me in the paths of right- 
eousness for His name s sake." Re- 
member how eager Moses was for the 
honor of the name of God 




Zbc SbepberD's Xeafctng 





many a saintly lip have the words 
broken, " What wilt Thou do for Thy 
great name?" The name denotes the 
honor and character of God. These are 
implicated ; these are at stake ; the right 
leading of the saint is guaranteed by 
their immutability. 

What is His name ? " Wonderful " ? 
Then there is a claim on the marvelous 
working of His power to overrule every- 
thing to our highest good. " Coun- 
selor " ? Then there is a claim upon 
His unerring wisdom to work out a 
scheme which will fill heaven with 
admiration. " The mighty God"? 
Then there is a claim upon Him to do 
nothing inconsistent with divine integ- 
rity and glory. " The everlasting 
Father"? Then there is a claim on 
Him to deal no less tenderly than a 
father with his child. " The Prince of 



tt 




<r<!&*yyZ, 



^0W^ 






76 Zbc SbepberO ipsalm 

Peace " ? Then there is a claim on Him 
in accordance with the sweetness and 
loveliness of His heart, the memories of 
His cross, and the tenderness of His 
benediction of peace. ^s^v*5^- 

" For His name's sake." Wmit a 
plea that, to look right up from the 
heart of man to the heart of Christ, sure 
that He will not deny Himself, or belie 
His character, or do aught inconsistent 
with His tender love to those for whom 
He died! 

Tell us Thy name, O wondrous Shep- 
herd, going on before, and leading us 
by way of Gethsemane and Calvary to 
the garden of the Easter morn and the 
sward of the ascension mount! And 
as we catch Thine answer, melodious 
with love, we will trust and not be 
afraid ; we will follow Thee whitherso- 
ever Thou goest ; and we believe that 





V 

Gbe Sbepberfc's XeaDing 77 

we shall find that no step of the path 
was inconsistent with the leadings of a 
Love wise and strong and tender as the 
heart of God ! 






VI 
®l)e ballet of Sliaboto 

Yea, though I walk through the valley 

Of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil : for thou art with me. 




In all Scripture there is no verse 
more familiar than this. No Bible figure 
has made a more lasting or indelible 
impression. This picture of the close 
of our lives, with a dark valley at the 
end of their sunny pathway, was hung 
up long ago in the halls of memory, as 
we first learned to lisp these venerable 
words ; and though much has happened 
since then, it holds its place, and will 
while memory endures. In millions of 
78 




^- : 



■§3k£ 



Cbe Dalles of Sbaoovv ^^^fe^l 

cases these have been the last words 
uttered by dying saints ; and it is in the 
highest degree probable that they will 
be gently uttered by many of those 
who read these words, as the spirit 
passes the borderland into " its ain 
countrie " ; unless the Lord come first, 
and we miss the passage of the valley, 
being caught up to meet Him in the air. 
Methinks I see that valley now. The 
Shepherd is conducting His flock to- 
ward their fold in luxuriant pastures 
and in quiet resting-places. But sud- 
denly the path turns downward and 
begins to wind toward the ravine below. 
On the one side is a precipice, yawning 
in sheer descent to the steep river-bed, 
where the water foams and roars, torn 
by jagged rocks. On the other side 
the mountain-firs cast a somber shadow 
in the deepening twilight. The path 






so 



Gbe Sbepberfc jpsalm 



still plunges downward until it passes 
into a deep and narrow gorge overhung 
by the frowning battlements of rock, 
which almost touch overhead ; while 
the trees join hands, bough enclasping 
bough. It would be dark there in the 
most brilliant noon. To linger there 
after sundown would be to court the 
ague. All along its course are the lairs 
and haunts of ravenous beasts. Such 
is the valley of the shadow of death ; 
through which the Great Shepherd once 
went alone, and by which He now con- 
ducts all His flock to their home. The 
foremost ranks have long ago emerged 
into the sunshine ; others are now pass- 
ing through its dark shadows ; and ere 
long we too may be beneath them. 

This figure gives us some comforting 
thoughts about death. It is not a state, 
an enduring condition, or an abiding- 



4 






* 




Gbe Dalles ot SbaDow 

place. It is a passage, a transition, a 
valley through which we walk. The 
valley may be darksome and lonely and 
infested with evil things ; but we do not 
pitch our tent there ; we pass through 
it to our rest. In death the spirit leaves 
the body and passes out; just as an 
artisan will leave the workshop at the 
evening hour, shutting blinds and doors 
as he passes out to his home, and leaves 
it deserted and still ; but his voice is to 
be heard in his home circle, as he makes 
glad the wistful hearts that had waited 
for him, and whose joy had been in- 
complete till he came. 

In Damascus there is a long, dark, 
narrow lane, ending in a tunnel. It has 
been there for ages. The traveler 
descends and passes through ; but on 
the other side he emerges into the 
courtyard of an Oriental palace, flash- 




82 



Cbe SbepberD ipsalm 



V 



ing with color and sunlight. This is a 
figure of a believer's death. Christ is 
called the first-born from the dead. 
Dying is being born out of the confine- 
ment and darkness of earth into the 
glorious light and liberty of the heavenly 
life. It is a physical act which affects 
the body, but does not touch the facul- 
ties or acquirements of the individual 
soul. " Absent from the body, present 
with the Lord." No staying in a state 
of unconsciousness ; but an exodus, a 
passage, a walking through a brief val- 
ley, sunshine on this side, sunshine on 
that, and just a moment, a parenthesis, 
a handbreadth of gloom. 

Death is t lie gate to life. Our beloved 
are not dead ; they are the living, who 
have passed through death into the 
presence of the King. And whensoever 
we stand beside our dear ones, called 




«$£** 





£be Dalleg of Sbaoow 83 ( 

to this exodus, of which the Apostle 
Peter speaks,* we may address them 
with words of comfort and of hope : 
" Go forth, O Christian soul, from this 
world, in the name of God Almighty, 
who created thee ; in the name of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of the living God, who 
suffered for thee ; in the name of the 
Holy Ghost, who was poured out for 
thee! " 

Yet the valley is dark. The pain of 
the body often depresses the spirit and 
overcasts it with a gloom, which is 
often erroneously attributed to spiritual 
causes. It is hard to part without sad- 
ness from those who have been the 
beloved fellow-pilgrims of the march. 
There is, moreover, a sense of loneli- 
ness ; for though it is peopled with 

* 2 Peter i. 15 (exodus). The word occurs in one' 
other instance in the New Testament (Luke ix. 31). 









£be SbepberC* fl>salm 

pilgrims — three thousand each hour — 
yet each goes alone. i( Je mourrai seal.'" 
Nor are elements of darkness wanting 
through the machinations of our direst 
foe, who delights in the moment of 
mortal weakness to accumulate objects 
of dread before our failing sight. 

At the best it is a solemn thing to 
die. The hardened desperado may 
meet his end without a shudder. 
"There are no bands in his death: his 
strength is firm." But in proportion to 
the nurture of the spirit in all refined 
and tender feeling it is impossible to 
quit the receding shore, and make for 
the sea, darkling under the clouds of 
night, without a sense of seriousness 
and sobriety. The befitting pace is 
aptly described as a walk : " Yea, 
though I walk" 

But at the worst death is only a 





Gbe IDalleg of Sbaoow 

shadow. It is " the valley of the 
shadow of death." Christ met the sub- 
stance, we encounter but the shadow. 
The monster is deprived of teeth and 
claws. Our Theseus has destroyed him 
who had the power of death, that is, 
the devil; and has delivered them who 
through fear of death were all their life- 
time subject to bondage. He has 
abolished death. And we who belong 
to Him may boldly cry, " O death, 
where is thy sting?" Ah, the wasp 
stung the Good Shepherd to death, and 
has left his sting fixed in that cross 
where He died. 

A shadow is the exact counterpart of 
its substance. But it is not in itself 
harmful. The shadow of a dog cannot 
bite ; of a giant cannot kill ; of death 
cannot destroy. The prophet says that 
death is a veil cast over the face of all 






-0 



Cbe SbepberD psalm 



nations ; but a veil is harmless enough. 
Besides, you cannot have a shadow 
unless there be a bright light shining 
somewhere. The shadow is temporary, 
the light eternal ; for " God is light, and 
in Him is no darkness at all." 

But this imagery may stand for other 
experiences besides dying. We have 
often to pass through dark valleys on 
our way home. The road to the 
heavenly Jerusalem lies through the 
valleys of Baca, where eyes wax red 
with weeping and tears brim into pools. 
The great dreamer, in his description of 
the Pilgrim's Progress, places the pas- 
sage of the valley of the shadow in 
the middle of his course. Between the 
House Beautiful and Vanity Fair there 
lies such a description of this valley as 



.v *£'£-.' could onlv have been written bv one 



- k x 



y who had passed through its ravines. 








XLhc Dalles of Sbaoow 



" Now morning being come, he looked back, not 
out of any desire to return, but to see, by the light ^ 
of the day, what hazards he bad gone through in the 
dark. So he saw more perfectly the ditch that was 
on the one hand, and the quag that was on the other ; 
also how narrow the way was which lay betwixt them 
both ; also now he saw the hobgoblins and satyrs and 
dragons of the pit, but all afar off (for after the break 
of day they came not nigh) ; yet they were discovered 
to him, according to that which is written : ' He dis- 
covered deep things out of darkness, and bringeth 
out to light the shadow of death.' " 





We pass through many a valley of 
shadow ere we reach THE valley. And 
whenever we feel our souls overcast we 
should stay to consider if there be a 
cause arising from our neglect or sin. 
If there be, a moment's confession will 
bring us out again into the light. But 
if there be none, so far as we can tell, 
then let us be brave to plod on. Every 
step has been measured out for us, even 
as it has been trodden before us. And 
God is testing us to see whether we can 





88 XLbc SbepberD ipsalm 

trust Him in the dark as well as in the 
light, and whether we can be as true to 
Him when all pleasurable emotions have 
faded off our hearts as when we walked 
with Him in the light. 

There is a good purpose in all these 
shadowed valleys. They test the qual- 
ity of the soul. They reveal our weak 
places. They unveil the stars that peer 
down through the interspaces of rock 
and tree. They make us follow the 
Shepherd closely, lest we lose Him. 
They teach us to value as never before 
the rod and staff. Blessed are those 
that do not see, but who yet believe ; 
and who are content to be stripped of 
all joy and comfort and ecstasy, if it be 
the Shepherd's will, so long as there is 
left to them the sound of His voice and 
the knowledge that He is near. 

Listen to the courageous declaration of 




XLbc Waller ot Sbafcow 



89 



the saintly soul, boasting of its fearless- 
ness: " I will fear no evil." There is 
no fear in love. Perfect love casteth 
out fear. Nothing else can do it. You 
may argue against fear. You may 
deride it. You may try and shame it. 
But all will be in vain. If you would 
master it you must expel it by the trust 
which is born of love. A man comes 
home faint and famished, his nature 
craves for food ; but as he enters into 
his house he learns that his child, sud- 
denly stricken with fever, is lying at the 
point of death ; and in a moment he has 
forgotten his hunger in the paroxysm 
of love and grief with which he bends 
over the tiny feverish form and hastens 
to moisten the dry lips. Thus the lower 
passions are subdued in the soul by the 
higher. And so it happens that the 
most timid spirit which is conscious of 






90 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 



the presence of the Good Shepherd can 
sing as it passes onward through the 
gloom, and its notes vibrate with the 
buoyancy of a courage which cannot 
flinch or falter. " Yea, though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of 
death, I will fear no evil." "God is 
our refuge and strength, a very present 
help in trouble. Therefore will not we 
fear." 

It is very well to say, " What time I 
am afraid, I will trust in Thee; " but it 
is still better to say, " I will trust, and 
not be afraid." 

Son r ozv and dying make Christ's pres- 
ence real. Have you ever noticed the 
change in the pronoun? Hitherto the 
psalmist has spoken of the Lord in the 
third person ; but now, as he moves 
down into the dark, he draws closer to 
the divine Leader and Guide, speaking 




% 




Cbe IDalleg of Sbaoow 



91 



to Him in a whisper, and saying Thou. 
In the green pastures it was enough to 
speak of " He " ; but now there is need 
for the closer, tender address. When 
things are going well with us we may 
content ourselves with talking about the 
Lord ; but when the sky darkens we 
hasten to deal with Him and talk to 
Him directly. The child which had 
been playing about the room will run 
to your knee and cling closely to your 
bosom as soon as the thunder-clouds 
gather and the wind moans through the 
house. In this way death-chambers 
become presence-chambers. 

The darkness is sometimes too dense 
for us to be able to see Christ. But 
faith can always be sure that He is 
there; not because of the evidence of 
sense or feeling, but because He has 
said, " I will never leave thee, nor for 




w m % 




--. 92 



Zhc Sbepberfc fl>salm 



\ 




sake thee." He cannot break His word. 
He has not left us alone. He is looking 
down on us with unabated tenderness. 
The depths may sever Him from the 
apprehension of our love ; but neither 
death nor life, nor height nor depth, can 
separate us from the strong grasp of His 
faithful and unchanging affection. Yea, 
" the mountains may depart, and the 
hills be removed ; but His kindness will 
not depart from thee, neither will the 
covenant of His peace be removed." 

" The darkness and the light are both 
alike to Thee," O Christ, who didst 
tread the dense darkness of Gethsemane 
and Calvary — alone, desolate, and for- 
saken of Thy Father. But Thou know- 
est the way, since Thou hast trodden 
it. rhou art as near to us as when we 
lee near. And Thou 
never be 



\|vast lonely that we 



might 




£be IMleg of Sbaoovv 



93 



lonely ; Thou wast forsaken that we 
might never be forsaken ; Thou didst 
tread the wine-press alone that each 
poor timid child of Thine in all future 
ages might be able to sing the words of 
undying comfort : " I will fear no evil : 
for Thou art with me." 






am 



«a&^ 



VII 



Comfort tljrotTig!) tl)c ftoo anb Staff 



" Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. 





WHATEVER the valley of the shadow 
of death may stand for in our Christian 
experience, there is no doubt that the 
lonely spirit in its passage through it 
stands in .urgent need of comfort. From 
the beginning to the end of Scripture 
there is no refrain more frequent or 
more consolatory than the thought 
embodied in the words, " Comfort ye, 
comfort ye My people, saith your God." 
Indeed, it would almost appear as if the 
eternal God had set to Himself the task 

94 




XLbe IRod an£> tbe Staff 

of comforting His people as a mother 
comforteth her first-born. 

All true comfort emanates from God, 
through the work of the Holy Spirit, 
whose comfort is especially mentioned 
in Acts ix. 3 I ; and any who would ex- 
perience God's comfort in all its tender 
helpfulness, let them read perpetually 
in the Word of God, ' that through 
patience and comfort of the Scriptures 
they may have hope (Rom. xv. 4). 

It would sometimes appear, indeed, 
that God puts us into special circum- 
stances of difficulty and trial in order 
that He may make manifest to us the 
infinite resources of His consolation ; 
just as we need to go out into the dark 
night in order to behold the stars. But 
the great point brought out in these 
words is that the Almighty God, our 
Shepherd, comforts us by His rod and 





yo XLhc SbepberD ipealm 

His staff. How is it that these two 
badges of the Shepherd's office, which 
seem rather to speak of discipline, can 
possibly bring comfort to tried believers? 
It is this point which we desire for a 
moment to elucidate ; and may we not 
hope that the God of all comfort will 
reveal to us fresh sources of comfort, 
that we may be able to comfort others 
with the comfort wherewith we our- 
selves have been comforted of God? 

What is the Shepherd's rod? It is 
surely the symbol of His defending 
power. It is the scepter which He car- 
ries as the supreme Shepherd-King. 
It is the weapon by which He strikes 
down our adversaries, even though it be 
heavy with chastisement for ourselves. 
In passing through some rocky fastness 
or shadowed valley where wild beasts 
have their lair and hill-robbers hide in 




Zbe 1Ro£> an& tbe Staff 



many a darkened cave, a shepherd needs 
to be well armed with heavy club or 
ponderous rod, that he may deal death- 
giving blows to lion or bear or stealthy 
thief imperiling the safety of one of his 
charge. And does not this suggest the 
protecting grace of Christ our Lord, 
who is ever on the alert to ward off 
from us threatening ills, whether they 
emanate from the prince of the power 
of the air, or from those malicious 
human foes to whose presence in this 
life our psalmist so often alludes, and 
who have their counterpart more or less 
in the lives of us all? 

Many who may read these words 
spend all their lives under the shadow 
of a great fear. They dread the outset 
of temptation, before which they feel 
themselves as impotent as the withered 
leaves of autumn before the gusty gale ; 










Gbe SbepberD psalm 



they fear that one day they will become 
the prey of the lion, or fall into the 
hands of a Saul. Would that they 
might transfer the responsibility of 
keeping their souls into the hands of 
their faithful Redeemer, confident that 
He will be about their path and their 
lying down, so that they may " dwell 
safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the 
woods." The Breaker goes before the 
flock, smiting down all opposition with 
irresistible might ; and God Himself is 
at the rearward of the flock, defending 
it from all attack from behind. 

O timid hearts, dreading every spirit- 
ual and temporal evil — like children 
going down a dark lane, in dread lest at 
every turn they should meet some ter- 
rible ogre or object of dread ; startled 
by the sigh of every breeze, and by the 
whitened bole of every hollow tree — 






TLbc IRoD anD tbe Staff 

would that you could realize how abso- 
lutely Christ assumes the care of all 
who trust Him! The one question is 
whether you have so completely handed 
over the responsibility of your lives to 
Him as to make Him the sole custodian 
and safeguard of your being, both for 
this world and the next. From the 
defending rod or club of the Great 
Shepherd we may derive abundant 
comfort; because it is written, " My 
sheep shall never perish, neither shall 
any [man or devil] pluck them out of 
My hand." 

What is the staff? We would rather 
call it the shepherd's crook, which is 
often bent or hooked at one end. It is 
'- associated as inseparably with the shep- 
herd as the goad is with the plowman. 
Beneath it the sheep pass one by one to 
be numbered or told. By it the shep- 



^. 






g^ioo Cbe Sbepberfc ipealm 

herd restrains them from wandering, or 
hooks them out of holes into which they 
may fall ; by it, also, he corrects them 
when they are disobedient. In each of 
these thoughts there is comfort for the 
tried children of God. 

We are numbered among God 's sheep 
as we pass one by one beneath the touch 
of the Shepherd's crook. Our names 
may be unknown among the great and 
learned, but they are written in heaven. 
Our dwelling-places may be lowly and 
ungarnished among the mansions and 
palaces of the rich, but we have " houses 
not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." Our sphere of ministry may 
be limited, and our work in the trenches, 
preparing for the foundations, far away 
from the shoutings with which the top- 
stone is placed upon a finished pile in 
the sunny air; but we shine as stars of 




Cbe IRoD anD tbe Staff 

the first magnitude in the sight of God. 
We are accounted as the small dust in 
the balance, as smoking flax or bruised 
reeds ; but in the eye of our Heavenly 
Father we are prized as very precious 
jewels, entered in His inventory, and 
destined to shine in the regalia of. His 
Son before the gaze of all worlds. 

Words were spoken once among the 
exiles in Babylon which we may fitly 
apply to ourselves in this connection. 
Gathering at night by the waters of 
Babylon, they hanged their harps upon 
the pliant branches of the willows, as 
they swept in the current of the stream 
beneath, and they wept as they remem- 
bered the ruins of their beloved Jerusa- 
lem. Then in their midst the prophet 
voice was heard bidding them lift up 
their eyes on high, and behold the starry 
hosts ; also they were reminded that 





^^VJcfe 




4%mw 




102 



Gbe Sbepberfc ipsalm 



God called all these by names by the 
greatness of His might ; and then 
followed the magnificent apostrophe : 
" Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and 
speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from 
the Lord, and my judgment is passed 
over from my God?" And to each 
weary heart treading the dark valley of 
sorrow I would speak comfort in the 
selfsame words. 

The myriad stars of heaven seem to 
make up one huge flock. Their Shep- 
herd is God, who is driving them 
through space ; or who watches them, 
as it were, resting on the heavenly slopes 
as a flock of sheep on the downs at 
night. And He has a name for each of 
them. Is it therefore to be supposed 
that He will not be as minute in His 
care of each one of us? Will He not 
have a name for each of us? Will He 



V 




Ube IRofc anD tbe Staff 

not number us when He tells the tale 
of His sheep, even as He numbers the 
hairs of our heads? This very morn 
He touched you with His staff and 
counted you. You are the destined 
object of His care. Is it likely, then, 
that He will suffer you to perish, or 
want any good thing? 

By the Shepherd 's staff we are also 
extricated from circumstances of peril 
and disaster into which we may have 
fallen through our own folly and sin. 
When Peter through his unbelief began 
to sink in the waves, the Saviour caught 
him and supported him, so that they 
walked together to the boat. And this 
is only a sample case of our Shepherd's 
tender care ; for very often sin not only 
grieves Him, but it plunges us into cir- 
cumstances of misery and trouble which 
threaten to overwhelm us. 






104 Cbe SbepberD ipsalm 

At such times He is not unmindful 
of His own ; and though we may seem 
to have forfeited all claim to His care, 
yet He is " a very present help in time 
of trouble." He does not permit us to 
reap as we have sown. He averts the 
full penalty of our own mistakes and 
misdeeds. He comes after us in the 
wilderness, not staying His foot until 
He has discovered the pit into which 
we have fallen, from which He does not 
fail to drag us forth ; placing us on His 
shoulders if we are too weak to walk, 
and bringing us back ; satisfied with no 
other recompense than that we are safe. 
" Thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I, 
even I, will both search My sheep, and 
seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh 
out his flock in the day that he is among 
his sheep that are scattered ; so will I 
seek out My sheep, and will deliver 



J 








Cbe IRofc anfc tbe Staff 



105 



them out of all places where they have 
been scattered in the cloudy and dark 
day." Oh, the long-suffering patience 
of Christ, who will not permit us to be 
overwhelmed by the sorrows and pen- 
alties which we may have incurred, 
but will reach out His crook to drag 
us back from the death that we had. 
courted! 

By the staff the Shepherd also corrects 
His sheep. At first there seems but little 
comfort here. It is not pleasant to any 
one of us to be corrected. The smart 
stroke of the staff is painful. Yet there 
is consolation in the reflection that God 
must care for us, or He would not think 
it worth His while to expend time and 
thought upon our chastisement. Who 
troubles to take to the lapidary's wheel 
common flints and stones of the beach? 
The stone that is deeply cut, the dia- 




■*M1/!^ 






Cbe Sbepberd psalm 

mond which is carefully polished, the 
metal which is plied with intense heat 
for weeks and even months, must have 
proved themselves to be of excellent 
worth. What gardener would spend 
time and pains over a tree which, after 
repeated trial, had refused to bear fruit ? 
Is it not the bough which has already- 
borne luxuriant clusters that receives 
the incessant attention of the husband- 
man? "Whom the Lord loveth He 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
whom He receiveth. If ye endure 
chastening, God dealeth with you as 
with sons." Welcome, then, O children 
of God, each stroke of the Shepherd's 
staff! Get comfort out of every smart 
by the thought : (< My Shepherd must 
love me tenderly, or He would never 
treat me thus;" and then turn the heart 
toward Him in eaeer desire to know the 



mm 




Gbe 1Ro& anfc tbe Staff 



107 



lesson He would teach, and to miss 
nothing of the benefits which He in- 
tends. 

So we journey slowly through the 
valley, learning many a lesson of com- 
fort which we hide in our hearts. We 
are almost content to suffer because of 
the rich revenue of blessing which 
accrues. With us, as with the oyster, 
every wound becomes the origin of a 
pearl. And there is this also: that our 
own experiences make us very tender 
toward the failures and sorrows of 
others, and we are able to join in the 
glad outburst of the Apostle who said, 
" Blessed be God, even the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of 
mercies, and the God of all comfort ; 
who comforteth us in all our tribulation, 
that we may be able to comfort therm 
which are in any trouble, by the comfort 




<?<&*&£' 




£be SbepberD ipealm 

wherewith we ourselves are comforted 
of God. For as the sufferings of Christ 
abound in us, so our consolation also 
aboundeth by Christ." 



at 





^ 



VIII 
&[)c Banquet 

" Thou preparest a table before me 
In the presence of mine enemies." 

At first it seems difficult to catch the 
exact sequence of the psalmist's thought, 
as he turns from the sheep-cotes to the 
festal board. And yet the demands of 
the spiritual life so far transcend all 
earthly analogies as to demand that 
more than one metaphor should be 
employed, one supplying what the other 
lacks, so that the true conception of our 
relationship to God may be complete. 

Now it is of course very helpful to 

think of one's self as a sheep, and of 

T09 






110 



Gbe SbepberO psalm 




Christ as a Shepherd ; but there can be 
no fellowship between the dumb animals 
and their watchful keeper. The little 
child that comes from the shepherd's 
shealing to meet its father has more in- 
timate fellowship with him, though it 
can hardly articulate its words, than the 
dumb creatures of his care. 

The psalmist, therefore, seems to say, 
" I am more than Jehovah's sheep ; I 
am Jehovah's guest." It is a mark of 
great intimacy to sit with a man at his 
table ; in the East it is essentially so. 
It is not only a means of satisfying 
hunger, but of intimate and affectionate 
love. Hence the aggravation of the 
psalmist's sorrow, as he said, " He that 
breaketh bread with me is he that lifteth 
up his heel against me." Xor was it 
possible for our Lord to give any more 
touching proof of His love for His way- 






£be banquet 

ward follower than to dip a sop andv 
pass it to his hands. Here, then, arises 
before us a rich theme for meditation 
while we compare life to a seat at God's 
banquet- table, eating the things which 
He has prepared. 

We sit at the table of God's daily 
providence. Our Heavenly Father has 
a great family. He is weighted with 
the concerns of a universe. All sentient 
things depend upon His sustaining 
power. Not a seraph cleaves the air 
but what derives his power of obedience 
from his sovereign Lord ; and not a 
mote of life floats in the sunbeam, flash- 
ing in the light, but it is dependent upon 
the light and life of the central Sun, 
before whom angels veil their faces. 

And yet, amid all the infinite variety 
of nature which God is supplying con- 
stantly, He is surely most attentive to 



=2^? 




112 



Gbe Sbepberfc jpsalm 



the needs of those who, in an especial 
sense, call Him "Our Father." We 
are His pensioners ; nay, better — we are 
His children ! All the stores of His 
divine provision must fail before He can 
suffer us to want. He may sometimes 
keep us waiting until His hour has 
struck; but just as He will never be one 
moment too soon, so He will not be 
a moment too late. He will cause a 
widow woman to sustain us with the 
barrel of meal, which, however often 
scraped, will yield a fresh supply. He 
will rain bread from heaven, so that 
man may eat angels' food. He will 
multiply the slender store of the boy's 
wallet, so that present need may be met, 
and stores accumulated for the future. 

On a recent Sunday evening a sick 
member of a congregation, debarred 
from attending her customary place of 

k 




Gbe ^Banquet 




worship, intrusted to the hand of the 
minister a two-shilling piece, which he 
was to hand to a poor widow known to 
them both. It so happened that he 
encountered her slowly making her way 
to the church, and at once handed to 
her the coin. But he was hardly pre- 
pared for the immediate response : " I 
did not think that He would have sent 
it so soon." On further inquiry he dis- 
covered that she had placed her last 
coin that day in the collection, and was 
entirely dependent upon such answer as 
her Heavenly Father might send to her 
trustful prayer that He would provide 
for her next meal. Evidently she had 
been accustomed to close dealings with 
God, and had learned that His deliver- 
ance is timed to arrive " when the morn- 
ing breaks " — the morning of direst 
..;> need ; the hour when pride and self- 





114 Gbe Sbepberfc psalm 

sufficiency have expired, but when faith 
and hope stand expectant at the portals 
of the soul, looking for the deliverance 
which cannot be long delayed. 

I never shall forget the story of an 
old man discovered sitting in one of the 
seats of York Minster, within a short 
period of closing-time, and who had 
been sitting there since the early morn- 
ing, waiting. He had come to the city 
to find his daughter; but, having missed 
her, had found himself without friends 
or food, and with his last coin spent. 
Not knowing whither to turn, he had 
found his way into the splendid minster, 
and had sat there the livelong day ; be- 
cause, as he said, he thought the likeliest 
place to find his Father's table was in 
his Father's house. Need I add that 
his need was fully satisfied? 
r ' God's children seem to think that 




* 



S 



Zftc banquet ns 

they are no better off than men of the 
world. And according to their faith, 
so it is done unto them. If we do not 
exercise faith and claim God's provisions, 
ought we to be surprised when we do 
not receive them ? If, on the other 
hand, we would dare to put our finger 
upon His promises, which bind Him to 
meet His children's need, though the 
young lions lack and suffer hunger, we 
should find that our God would be equal 
to all our emergencies, and that not one 
good thing would fail of all His prom- 
ises. When men indicate certain cases 
in which God's children have pined to 
death, it is always wise to inquire 
whether they were living in believing 
fellowship with Him, and whether they 
had claimed the fulfilment of His spe- 
cific pledges. It is very unbecoming, to 
say the least, that God's children should 







116 Cbe Sbepberfc Realm 

be as fretful about their daily bread, sup- 
posing they are using all lawful methods 
to obtain it, as the children of men. 
Was it not with a tone of reproach that 
our Lord said, "After all these things do 
the Gentiles seek"? What could be 
more assuring than His own words, 
backed by the experience of His own 
life? — "Your Heavenly Father knoweth 
that ye have need of all these things." 

What would you say if, when school- 
time came to-morrow morning, your 
little boy, before he started with un- 
willing feet to school, entered your 
larder and busied himself in examining 
its contents, with especial reference to 
your provision for dinner? Would he 
not legitimately incur your displeasure? 
Would you not say, " Be off to school, 
and leave me to care while you are 
ould you not rebuke him 




^r 



£be banquet 117 

for his want of simple trust? Oh that 
we might learn lessons from our babes, 
and believe that life is one long residence 
in one of the mansions of our Father's 
home ; and that the time can never 
come when the table is quite bare, and 
when there is nothing for our need ! 
He may suffer you to hunger, because 
there are some devils which will only 
go forth by prayer and fasting; but, 
sooner or later, His angel will touch 
you, saying, "Arise and eat;" and on 
the desert floor you will find, spread by 
angel hands, a banquet, though it be 
nothing more than a cruse of water at 
your head, and cakes baked on the hot 
stones of the wilderness, for your repast. 
God also prepares the table of spiritual 
refreshment. Can we ever forget that 
episode — among the most charming in- 
cidents in the forty days — in which, as 







118 



£be Sbcpber^ psalm 



the weary fishers emerged with empty 
boats from a long, toilsome night, they 
found a banquet spread for them, by the 
tender thoughtfulness of their Lord, 
upon the strand of the lake? As soon 
as they touched land they saw a fire of 
coals, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 
And is not this an emblem of our Lord's 
perpetual treatment of His children? 
Tired, disappointed with fruitless toils, 
agitated by conflicting hopes and fears, 
we often pull to the shore trodden by 
His blessed feet ; nor do we ever ap- 
proach Him without finding that He 
has anticipated our spiritual require- 
ments, and that " His flesh is meat in- 
deed, and His blood drink indeed." 

Writing to the Corinthian Christians, 
the Apostle Paul said that, inasmuch as 
Christ had been slain as our Passover 
Lamb, we must imitate the children of 



"*r- 



-*** 




Gbe banquet 



119 



Israel, who, with closed doors and girded 
loins and sandaled feet, stood around 
the table eating of the flesh of the 
lamb, whose blood on the exterior of 
their houses demanded their deliverance. 
" Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us : 
therefore let us keep the feast." The 
life of the church between the first and 
second advents is symbolized by the 
feast on that memorable night. With 
joy in our voices and triumph in our 
mien, we stand around the table where 
Christ's flesh is the nourishment of all 
true hearts, straining our ear for the 
first clarion notes which will tell that 
the time of our exodus has come. 
Christian people are very much too 
thoughtless of the necessity of feeding 
off God's table for the nourishment of 
spiritual life. There is plenty of work 
being done ; much attendance at con- 

,1 





Gbe SbepbciD ipsalm 

f erences and special missions ; diligent 
reading of religious books ; but there is 
a great and fatal lack of the holy medi- 
tation upon the person, the words, and 
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Will each reader of these lines stay 
here for a moment and ask if he knows 
anything of the interior life of medita- 
tion which is ever deriving fresh suste- 
nance from a consideration of the Lord ? 

It was only the other day that I was 
rebuked by the habit of a well-known 
Roman Catholic bishop of whom it is 
said : " The first point of his rule was 
early rising, which he faithfully practised 
to the last day of his life, and often 
recommended to others. He was the 
first on foot at his palace, and began 
his prayers and meditation between four 
and five o'clock in the morning, and 
never spent less at them than an hour. 








i±SKfc 



y 



Gbe ^Banquet 

He often did this with his memoranda 
in his hand, so as to recall past graces 
and thus rekindle the flame. Nor did 
it seem as if any hour passed in his 
crowded and stirring life without by 
some direct act refreshing his soul by 
communion with God." 

And, in addition to this daily practice, 
he set apart one or two weeks in every 
year that he might quietly meditate more 
patiently upon the great mysteries of re- 
demption. This is what he said : " One 
must, by constant meditation on the great 
mysteries of incarnation and the redemp- 
tion, plunge one's self more and more in 
the love of God, which is the greatest 
grace of one's life. I will occupy myself 
more and more with our Lord, with His 
earthly and divine life, with His hidden, 
suffering, and glorious life. May my 
own be hidden in God in Jesus Christ!" 








>5f 




122 



Zhc SbepberD psalm 




We may specially apply these words 
also to the table of the Lord's Supper. 
This is emphatically a table which God 
has prepared ; which not only perpetu- 
ates the memory of the night in which 
our Lord was betrayed, but which 
enables us to raise our wandering 
thoughts, and to fix them on Him 
where He is now seated. There is no 
mystic change made in the bread or in 
the wine. The bread remains bread, 
and the wine wine, to the end of the 
simple feast ; and yet, at the moment 
of partaking of these elements, the pious 
heart does realize that, by its faith and 
holy thought, a distinct blessing is com- 
municated to its invigoration and com- 
fort. It is well, of course, at that solemn 
moment to recall the agony and bloody 
sweat, the cross and passion, the pre- 
cious death and burial ; but it is equally 





Cbe banquet 



123 



incumbent to look through the azure 
depths and to follow the Master through 
their parted folds, so as to feed upon His 
resurrection life and to participate in the 
perpetual Easter-tide of His existence. 

It is very helpful, where possible, to 
communicate at least once a week, that 
we may clearly learn to lift all life to 
the level of the Lord's table, to be at 
every meal as at a sacrament, and to 
use all the emblems of nature as means 
of holy fellowship with Him. How can 
we enough thank God that in this sense 
also He has prepared a table before us ? 

There is much comfort in the three 
words " prepared for me," because it 
would seem to indicate the anticipatory 
care of God. He does not allow us to 
be taken by surprise. He does not let 
His children ask for anything the need 
of which He has not foreseen. Just as 



%^ 






Gbe Sbepberfc fl>salm 

He has prepared beforehand the good 
works in which we are to walk, so has 
He prepared beforehand the food by 
which His workers shall be nourished. 
All our life's path is lined by cairns 
beneath which our Forerunner has 
placed the victuals which we shall 
require. "Thou preventest me with 
the blessings of Thy goodness." The 
table is spread before the hunger comes. 
The spring is bubbling in the shade 
before mother and child sink fainting 
on the sand. The angel of the Lord's 
host has not only taken possession of 
the hostile country, but has provided of 
the old corn of the land. God provisions 
His castles before they are besieged. 
" Thou preparcst a table before me." 

That is a very significant addition — in 
the presence of mine enemies. We surely 
are to understand by it that all around 






Zbe banquet 



125 



us may stand our opponents — pledged 
to do us harm ; to cut off our supplies ; 
to starve us out. See that ring of hos- 
tile faces, darting fierce glances and 
chafing to rush upon the beleaguered 
soul! But they cannot cut off the 
supplies that come hourly from above. 
They cannot hinder the angel ministers 
who spread the table and heap it up, 
and then form themselves into an inner 
ring of defense. They may gnash their 
teeth at the vanity and futility of their 
rage ; but when God elects to feed a 
soul, fed that soul shall be, though all 
hell attempt to say it nay! Many a 
time in David's life he ate his food in 
quietness and confidence, while Saul's 
hostile bands swept down the valleys 
and searched the caves to find him. 
As it was with David, so it has been 
often since. 






Gbe Sbepberfc psalm 




Yes, soul, God bids thee feast : " Eat, 
O beloved ; yea, eat and drink abun- 
dantly. " The King doth bring thee into 
His banqueting-house, and His banner 
over thee is love. Thou shalt eat of 
the hidden manna, and drink of the 
secret spring which bubbles up in the 
beleaguered city, enabling it to defy the 
encircling lines of its foes. Nor is the 
time far distant when we shall sit with 
Christ in His kingdom ; and as the far- 
traveled, footsore brethren of Joseph ate 
with the prince who once lay in the pit, 
so shall we sit down at the prepared 
table of the marriage supper, and Christ 
will gird Himself and come forth to 
serve us, and the festivities of an eter- 
nity, which shall never know penury or 
want, shall obliterate the memory of 
the sorrows of time. 





w 




"®l)0tt &nointest inn tytab tmtt) (DU 1 ' 

This similitude is borrowed from the 
usage of an Eastern feast, in which the 
welcome of the host to his guests is 
expressed by the precious unguents 
with which he anoints them on their 
entrance into his home. If they were 
as little welcome as Jesus was in the 
house of Simon, this act of courtesy 
would be omitted ; and the failure would 
be at once noticed, and perhaps referred 
to, as when the Master recalled it, say- 
ing, " My head with oil thou didst not 
anoint." 

Love and respect could hardly mani- 
127 





£be SbepberD jpsalm 

fest themselves more tenderly than by 
the costliness of the materials which 
were compounded to compose the oil to 
be lavishly poured upon the head of the 
beloved guest. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia 
would scent the garments with fragrance 
for many days, and would be a grateful 
memento of happy bygone hours. The 
lavish anointing which Mary of Bethany 
shed on the head of her Lord must have 
refreshed Him during the weary hours 
that followed, as the delicious scent 
stole up to Him from His dress and 
reminded Him of the affection of one 
true heart. 

These unguents, so grateful and 
refreshing to the scorched flesh and 
heated brow, seem to have been kept in 
cruses of alabaster, which were easily 
broken, so that their contents miffht 
be poured forth in lavish prodigality. 



V 



V 








Cbou Bnointest m£ 1beafc" 




How little does love reck of cost! 
When once much forgiveness has started 
the flow of much love, then in the first 
rapturous moments of conscious accep- 
tance sinners will not count it waste 
to express their tumultuous emotions 
in the expenditure of the contents of 
precious vases, as well as in tears and 
kisses and acts of tender thoughtfulness 
(Luke vii. 38). ^%p"" 

When the psalmist says that God 
Plimself anoints him with oil, does he 
not mean us to infer that life is a feast, 
in which we are guests and God is 
Host? And does he also mean to teach 
that God greets us in love and welcome ? 
He is not niggardly or churlish, but glad 
to see us glad, and to make us happy ; 
conferring on us luxuries as well as 
necessaries ; and taking pains, at great 
cost to Himself, to show us that He is 





1-30 



Gbe Sbepberfc pealm 



well pleased to accept us and show us 
grace in the Beloved. 

There are many proofs of this tender 
grace to mankind in general. There 
are gleams of light in most human lives 
— in the love of tender friends, or in 
congenial surroundings — which speak 
God's welcome. To most men entering 
on life there is the counterpart of the 
Eastern oil of welcome shed on the 
guest entering the festal chamber. 
Each human life is greeted as it steps 
across the mystic threshold from the 
unseen. There is at least the mother's 
kiss, the elasticity of youth, the keen 
sense of enjoyment in natural scenes, 
and the absence of foreboding care. 

And the blessed God has so contrived 
and adapted our nature to the world in 
which we live that there is a very 
ecstasy in life, and an abundance of 



.. 



^jpr 



^ 




"Zhou Bnotntest m& 1beaD" 

natural joy and gladness, save where 
man has by sin vitiated and marred the 
intentions of his Creator. " How ex- 
cellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! 
therefore the children of men put their 
trust under the shadow of Thy wings. 
They shall be abundantly satisfied with 
the fatness of Thy house ; and Thou 
shalt make them drink of the river of 
Thy pleasures." "Wine that maketh 
glad the heart of man, oil to make his 
face to shine." " Likewise of the fishes 
as much as they would." 

But though this is true of men gener- 
ally, yet there is an especial anointing 
in which they can have no part. In the 
Book of Exodus (xxx. 23-25) we have 
a description of a special kind of oil, 
" an oil of holy ointment," which was to 
be used to anoint the tabernacle and 
the ark and the holy vessels, and also ( 






*K 



-*?* 



132 Zhc SbepberD jpealm 

to consecrate Aaron and his sons, the 
priests. But there were two special 
provisions attached to it : first, that it 
should not be imitated ; secondly, that 
it should not be poured " upon man's 
flesh." Each of these restrictions is 
worthy of note. That it was not to be 
imitated surely teaches that it sets forth 
some special holy unguent in the divine 
chemistry which has no counterpart 
in human experience. And when we 
further search into the sacred text we 
find that throughout Scripture oil is 
the symbol of the blessed Holy Spirit. 
And we are justified by many passages 
in reading this thought into the glad 
exclamation of the psalmist. Oh that 
we might realize more constantly that 
our gracious Host, at whose table we 
sit, is constantly engaged in anointing 
us with the oil of the Holy Spirit! 



ffi^fe 



'■■Y 



W% : 




"Cbou Bnotntest ni£ 1bea£>" 133 

These words with deepest significance 
might have been appropriated by our 
blessed Lord. " Unto the Son He saith, 
God, even Thy God, hath anointed 
Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy 
fellows." And the Apostle Peter, in 
the house of Cornelius, distinctly as- 
serted such an anointing to have been 
communicated by the Father to the 
Son. " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 
with the Holy Ghost and with power." 
And with this the united voice of the 
persecuted but jubilant church accords, 
when it rises around the person of " Thy 
holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast 
anointed." Yes, and the Father did 
not give the Spirit by measure, but in 
unstinted abundance ; the heavens were 
opened — as in after-days the cruses of 
alabaster were broken — and the Holy 
Ghost descended (Luke iii. 22). 




134 



Gbe Sbepberfc ipsalm 




There never was a time when Jesus 
was not filled with the Holy Ghost. 
But who can read the Scriptures atten- 
tively and thoughtfully without discov- 
ering that the anointing of the Lord 
Jesus at the waters of baptism endued 
Him with special ministerial qualifica- 
tions? " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
Me, because He hath anointed Me." 
" I cast out devils by the Spirit of God." 
Onr Lord was anointed as priest. 
Every priest must be anointed with the 
sacred oil (Exod. xxix. 21), and our 
High Priest, though not after the order 
\oi Aaron, must not be without so sacred 
a designation to His office ; and thus the 
blessed Spirit descended and abode on 
Him " like the precious ointment upon 
the head, that ran down upon the beard, 
even Aaron's beard : that went down to 
the skirts of his garments." We are 






if 

m 





"Gbou Bnointest m^ Ibeafc" 

but as the skirts of His garments, near 8*?! 
His feet, where the pomegranates glisten-, 
amid the tinkle of the golden bells 
(Exod. xxviii. $$). Yet may we not 
claim and expect that as the skirts of 
His robes we shall receive the sacred 
chrism ? 

Our Lord was anointed as king. 
" Messiah " means Anointed. " We 
have found the Messiah (which is, the 
Anointed)." And in that magnificent 
Messianic psalm, in which, amid the 
rage of His foes, the Almighty desig- 
nates His Son to be the true King of 
men, it is distinctly stated, " Yet have I 
anointed My King upon My holy hill 
of Zion." Is there not in these glowing 
\vords»a resemblance to the scene when 
into the midst of the merrymaking of 
Adonijah and his fellow- conspirators, 
by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by 






Gbe SbepberO jpealm 

Enrogel, there broke a breathless mes- 
senger with the tidings, " Verily our 
lord King David hath made Solomon 
king. And Zadok the priest and 
Nathan the prophet have anointed him 
king in Gihon : and they are come up 
from thence rejoicing, so that the city 



rang again 



Halleluiah : for the Lord 




God omnipotent reigneth." The Man 
of Love is God's anointed Sovereign, 
and though we see not yet all things 
put under Him, they shall be, and the v - 
world shall come to respect the power 
of God's irrevocable decrees. 

We too are anointed priests and kings. 
Blood and oil were, as we have seen, 
used in the act of consecration. Our 
Lord, therefore, having purchased us 
and washed us in His blood, hath 
anointed us to be kings and priests unto 
^f God and His Father by the renewing 





"Gbou Bnointest m^ 1foeat>" im 

of the Holy Ghost, " which He shed on 
us abundantly." Hast thou experienced 
it, my reader? Or is this the bitter 
lack of thy life ? Ah, there is no favor- 
itism or partiality with our God! That 
anointing is thine in the mind and in- 
tention of God ; it is for thee to seek 
it, to appropriate it, and to allow it to 
be the one blessed consciousness of thy 
life ; so that thou mayest be able to 
adopt the Apostle's unhesitating assur- 
ance : "He which stablisheth us with 
you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is 
God ; who hath also sealed us, and given 
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 
Let us never attempt to perform the 
work of priests in offering the sacrifice 
of praise or prayer or devotion without 
having sought for and obtained a fresh 
anointing. And let us be sure that it 
will be impossible for us to exercise any 





Gbe Sbepberfc ipealm 



kingly function — ruling over our inner 
T ) nature, or sitting in conscious royalty 
with Christ on His throne — unless we 
are perpetually conscious of the anoint- 
ing grace of the blessed Holy Spirit. 

// is our privilege to be anointed with 
fresh oil (Ps. xcii. 10). Such was the 
glad assurance of the man after God's 
own heart. There is nothing stale in 
God's household economy. We do not 
need to live on dried fruits because 
winter has stripped the trees. The 
power and joy of other days should be 
no subject for lingering regret; for our 
gracious Host is able and willing to do 
as much for us, and more also, on each 
succeeding day of our life as in any day 
of the past. Sigh not for the grace of 
a day that is fled as if it will never come 
back. There are eternal stores and 
reservoirs of golden oil in God's olive- 





Zhou Bnointest m£ Ibeafc" 



139 



trees, which shall pour down the golden 
pipes of faith, ministering nutriment to 
the lamp of holy living ; so that it shall 
not flicker throughout the long night, 
but even grow in brilliance and radiating 
glory (Zech. iv. 12). Claim each morn- 
ing to be anew^anointed — and with 

TJiese anointings will make us glad. 
It is "the oil of gladness." "How 
great is His goodness, and how T great is 
His beauty ! corn shall make the young 
men cheerful, and new wine the maids." 
" Oil to make the face to shine." " Let 
Asher be blessed, and let him dip his 
foot in oil." The need of the world is 
— shining faces ; glad smiles ; hopeful 
words ; cheering toilers through the 
night; and feet elastic with joy, as if 
bathed in its very fullness. To be with- 
out these is to miss the seal of sonship, 




140 



XLhc SbepberD psalm 



\./ 





which shall most surely authenticate it 
before the eyes of all men, and to be- 
come a standing libel on the gospel of 
Christ. But if only we acquire them — 
as we most certainly shall when we are 
daily anointed by the Holy Ghost — our 
fellows will be attracted by something 
in our demeanor or looks which they 
cannot emulate or understand ; and they 
will ask us to tell them the secret of a 
joy which the world cannot touch be- 
cause its springs are hidden in a land 
where winter's frost is unknown. 

These anointings will teach us as no 
human teacher could. " Ye need not 
that any man teach you," wrote the 
beloved disciple to his little children : 
" but the same anointing teacheth you 
of all things." Fret and impatience are 
often connected with the attainment of 
earthly learning from the lips of human 






"Cbou Bnomtest m£ 1bea0" ui 




instructors; and often we miss the 
things we would most like to know. 
But there is nothing like this with our 
God. All His children are conscious 
that when He teaches them their peace 
is great. No one instructs as He does. 
And when He undertakes the tuition of 
the soul there is no item in all the 
sacred lore of heavenly divinity which 
is omitted. 

The effect of these anointings will be 
abiding. " The anointing which ye re- 
ceived of Him abideth in you." Food 
which we have eaten abides in us, and 
when we are quite unconscious of its 
presence it is doing its work in building 
up the fabric of our being. In some 
such way it must happen that the effect 
of a mighty spiritual blessing does not 
pass away with the moment of its first 
advent to the soul ; but it abides. And 





XLbe SbepberD psalm 

amid the pressure of daily circumstance 
and toil and engagement, when the 
mind seems too set on its necessary 
work to have leisure for upward spring- 
ing, then the Spirit will pursue His 
chosen office of ministering grace and 
strength within. In other words, we 
receive benefit from the anointing of 
the Holy Ghost long after the imme- 
diate moment of receiving it; the fra- 
grance still clings about our garments, 
the mollifying softness still lingers on 

° Ur faCG ' ^^^^^^^ 

Let us never rest satisfied with any- 
thing less than that indefinable and 
sacred grace called "unction." We 
cannot analyze it or understand why it 
effects what learning and eloquence fail 
to accomplish. But we detect it when 
it is present, we miss it when absent. 
With this the slightest words strike 




"£bou Bnofntest m^ IfoeaD" 

home to the hearers' hearts as the mes- 
sage of God. Without it the most 
eloquent sentences are like unfeathered 
arrows, which fall useless at the archer's 
feet. Withhold what Thou wilt, O God, 
but give us the unction — i.e., the 
anointing — of the Holy Spirit! " Thou 
anointest my head with oil." "Lord, 
not my head only, but also my hands 
and my feet!" 






X 






®l)e (Duerfloimng (Hup 

"My cup runneth over." 

Glad and festal moments come to 



the saddest and most weary hearts. At 
the close of a prolonged strain of anxiety, 
when lying exhausted on the desert sand, 
sleep casts its spell over the tired nature ; 
angels spread the refreshing banquet ; 
and the soul awakes beneath the celes- 
tial touch, invigorated for new toils. 

We cannot always tell whence such 
experiences come ; this is all we know : 
that the step is more elastic, the heart 
swells with buoyant hope, songs break 



from the lips 



and the whole 
144 



bcim 



Ql.-Ss 




£be ©vetflowing Cup 145 

thrills, as nature does on some lovely 
day of spring. " When the Lord turns 
again our captivity, the mouth is filled 
with laughter, and the tongue with 
singing : then we say among the heathen, 
The Lord hath done great things for 
us; whereof we are glad." 

At such hours life seems to us like a 
chalice mixed by the loving hand of 
God, and overflowing with His mercy 
and loving-kindness. And with tears 
struggling with smiles for the mastery, 
as rain and sunbeams on an x\pril day, 
we lift the brimming cup to our lips and 
cry, " My cup runneth over." 

A similar experience is unfolded in 
another psalm, which, like so many of 
its character, touches the lowest depths 
and springs as well as the topmost 
heights of human experience. It beginsv 
with the plaintive notes of trouble, " the 




-^-*$£— 3 








Gbe SbepberD psalm 



sorrows of death, and the pains of hell," 
and with rash imputations upon the 
truth of all men. It tells how in his 
need the psalmist called upon the name 
of the Lord. It recounts the glorious 
deliverance there was wrought on his 
behalf. And now, as he reviews his 
lot, it seems like a cup full of salvation, 
charged with the prompt, gentle, and 
sufficient deliverance wrought for him 
by the Almighty (Ps. cxvi. 12, 13). 

We have nothing to say now about 
the texture of life's cups. They may 
be of gold or silver or tin or alabaster 
or glass. There is an infinite variety in 
the raw material of which our lives are 
made. We have to deal only with in- 
gredients, which will taste as sweet from 
the earthen mug as from the golden 
goblet. And, after all, the great differ- 
ences that come to men's lives are much 




V& ; • 




tlbe ©verflowfns Cup 147 

more in their contents than in their 
outward seeming. Cease looking dis- 
consolately on the outside of thy cup 
and platter, but look thankfully on the 
contents, which may be sweeter and 
richer for thee, albeit that they are held 
in a cup of common texture, than are * 
the contents of other lives which thou 
dost envy, not knowing how bitter is 
the draft contained within. 

It becomes us to remember that " the 
cup of blessing'' of which we drink was 
once filled with a bitter curse. We read 
in Scripture of the cup of trembling and 
of the cup of God's wrath ; and as we 
read the words we know that our lives 
might well have been filled with trem- 
bling and with wrath, as the just reward 
of our deeds ; not that God is vindictive, 
or that He rejoices in the death of the 
sinner; but that His holy nature cannot 




us Gbe SbepberD psalm 

but be roused into antagonism whenever 
He comes into contact with evil and 
impurity. If we had been left to drink 
the bitter results of our sin, it would 
have been as when Moses ground the 
calf to powder and strewed it upon the 
waters and made the people drink. 
And if it be asked how it is that we 
have escaped so bitter an experience 
the answer is given in His words who 

'/ has pleaded the cause of His people : 
" Behold, I have taken out of thine 

1, hand the cup of trembling, even the 
dregs of the cup of My fury ; thou shalt 
no more drink it again." And when 
He took it out of our hands, He poured 
\, its contents into the cup mixed for 
Himself, returning it to us emptied even 
to the dregs ; nay, better, filled with the 
wine of His love and life; while He 
drank our potion of wrath and woe. 




m 




Gbe Overflowing Cup 149 

Remember His own words in the 
garden when His agony had passed and 
the ruffian band was about to bind Him, 
and Peter impetuously and character- 
istically drew his sword : l< Then said 
Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into 
the sheath : the cup which My Father 
hath given Me, shall I not drink it? " 

Consider the ingredients of Christ's 
cup — the shame and spitting ; the pain 
and anguish ; the physical torture ; and, 
above all, the bitterness of our sins, 
which were made to meet in Him ; the 
guilt of our curse, which He voluntarily 
assumed ; the equivalent of our punish- 
ment, which was imputed to Him. If 
we may so put it, the human race stood 
in one long line, each with a cup of 
hemlock in his hand ; and Christ, pass- if 
ing along, took from each his cup and '.' 
poured its contents into the vast beaker! 




<T <&&?$* 



150 



Gbe SbepberD lpsalm 



$?? 



n»* 



which He carried ; so that on the cross 
He "tasted death for every man." 
Thus our lives brim with salvation, be- 
cause His brimmed with condemnation. 
Our cup is one of joy, because His cup 
was one of sorrow. Our cup is one of 
blessedness, because His was one of 
God-forsakenness. 

Oh that we might in our moments 
of gladness imitate the blessed in 
heaven, who, amid their greatest joys, 
ever associate their happiness with the 
death of Christ ! Never forget the cost 
at which your brightest moments have 
been made possible. 



LET US ENUMERATE SOME OF THE 
INGREDIENTS OF OUR LIFE-CUP. 

I. Good JicaltJi is one of the chief. A 
man might have everything calculated 
to promote human happiness, but if all 






Zbc ©petflowing Cup 



151 



were tinged with the pain and weariness 
of constant illness, what joy could he 
have? Our sad days, when all sur- 
rounding objects are draped in somber 
hues, are, as often as not, due to bodily 
weakness ; and the ecstasy of our glad 
days, when sunny light lies upon the 
lawn of life, is generally coincident with 
a sense of vigorous health. If, then, 
your life-cup seems sweet and refresh- 
ing to your taste, you may calculate 
pretty shrewdly that good health is a 
main ingredient ; though we can form 
no estimate of its im^ortajice until it is 
withdrawn. «^ Saa ^ r ^£k*!P 

2. Then there are human friendships 
and affections, the absence of which 
makes the greatest prosperity a dreary- 
desert, so that even golden streets blister 
and weary the feet as if they were arid 
sands ; but whose presence will gladden 




152 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 




the meanest lot, so that even a garden of 
herbs will gleam with the glow of heaven. 

3. There are also the comforts of 
home life, to say nothing of the neces- 
saries. What a rich admixture of these 
do most of us enjoy ! Soft pillows, 
carpeted floors, warm, weather-tight 
rooms, likewise furniture rich and plenti- 
ful ; and variety of food, sufficient and 
comely garments, attendants who save 
us from harder and rougher toil. The 
Stoic may discipline himself to do with- 
out many of these things, and may even 
try to convince us that life is easier 
without than with them ; but, neverthe- 
less, it is undeniable that much of the 
enjoyment of our daily lives arises from 
the presence of these amenities to which 
we have become habituated by lfing 
custom and use. ^SOifS 

4. There are also the foj>s of the mind. 




Gbe Overflowing Gup 



153 



Each can draw up from the crypt of the 
past the treasure in which lies the learn- 




ing of the ancient and modern world ; 
each can collect the thoughts of poets 
and philosophers flung upon the strand 
of time as driftweed on the beach, torn 
by storms from ocean depths ; each can 
search out and drink in the wonders and 
beauties of nature from the wild-flowers 
of the forest glade ; 

"And those outlying worlds of many mooned spheres ; 
And that great store of stars more thickly strown 

in yonder sky 
Than dust upon the pale leaves of the auricula." 

5. Now and again there is a dash of 
extra sweetness poured into life's cup — 
some special deliverance, some un- 
looked-for interposition, some unde- 
served and unusual benediction — sent 
apparently for no other object than to 
satisfy God's passion for giving. And _.^44k^5££=. 






154 



£be SbepberD psalm 




here I must renounce my task — no 
human pencil can describe all that God 
pours into the lot of our life ; many 
of the constituents are too subtle for 
detection ; many are too divine for 
comprehension ; many are too numerous 
for computation. Besides, no life-cup 
is mixed in quite the same proportions. 
Our Father carefully studies our consti- 
tution, and then suits His preparation 
to our need ; and since we are infinitely 
various in our make, there is an infinite 
diversity in the drafts which He sets 
before us on the table which He spreads. 
Bat whatever blessing is in our cup y 
it is sure to run over. With Him the 
calf is always the fatted calf; the robe 
is always the best robe ; the joy is 
unspeakable ; the peace passeth under- 
standing ; the grace is so abundant that 
the recipient has all-sufficiency for all 





n*- Gbe QvextloxQinQ Cup 155 

v v . 

^r things, and abounds in every good work. 
^a^> There is no grudging in God's benevo- 
lence ; He does not measure out His 
goodness as the apothecary counts his 
drops and measures his drams, slowly 
and exactly, drop by drop. God's way 
is always characterized by multitudinous 
and overflowing bounty ; like that in 
nature, which is so profuse with beauty 
and life that every drop of the ocean, 
and every square inch of the forest 
glade, and every molecule of matter 
teems with marvels, and defies the 
research and investigation of man. 
Well may we each cry with the Apostle, 
" I have all, and abound." ^^ 

On the shore of one of tHir vast' 
fresh-water lakes of America stands a 
humble log-built cabin occupied by a 
family of settlers from the old country. 
A little child which has been playing 




-===ss^^'$fof> 





V 



156 



£be SbepberD psalm 



around all the morning and has become 
tired and thirsty goes within to ask its 
mother for water; and the mother, tak- 
ing a cup, goes with it down to the 
white sands on which the mimic break- 
ers dash with musical cadence, dips it 
in, and lifts it, brimming and dripping 
with a stream of crystal drops, to her 
darling's lips. That is the way in which 
God deals with us. He gives to all 
liberally, and does not upbraid. There 
is more in Him than we can ever need ; 
and He gives us more than we really 
can use for ourselves. Let us see to it 
that we so hold our cups as that their 
overflowings may not run to waste, but 
may drop into other cups, the cups of 
those that have not so much as we have. 
Oh that our paths might be like the 
paths of God, which, when they drop 
fatness, drop upon the parched pastures 





Zbc Overflowing Cup 

of the wilderness, so that the little hills 
are girded about with joy, and become 
at last covered with flocks ! " They 
shout for joy, they also sing." 

But it is especially in connection with 
spiritual blessing that the cup most often 
seems to overflow. This has been the 
experience of many eminent saints. In 
one of his seasons of rapt communion 
John Welch, of Scotland, cried, "O Lord, 
hold Thy hand; it is enough. Thy 
servant is a clay vessel, and can contain 
no more!" And John Flavel tells us 
that once when he was alone on a jour- 
ney his thoughts began to swell and 
rise higher and higher, till at last they 
became an overwhelming flood. Such 
was the attitude of his mind, such the 
refreshing taste of heavenly joys, and 
such the full assurance of his interest 
therein, that he truly lost the sight and 



c^ 




>*k*} 






Gbe SbepberD ipaalm 

sense of this world, and of the concerns 
thereof. Many years after he called 
that day one of the days of heaven, and 
professed that he understood more of 
the life of heaven by it than by all the 
books he ever read or sermons he ever 
heard about it. 

Certain it is that our Lord Jesus 
meant us to have a more abiding expe- 
rience of such joys. He not only came 
to give us life, but life more abundantly . 
He spake unto us His inimitable words, 
that our joy might be full. He meant 
our hearts to delight themselves with 
fatness, and to be satisfied with the favor 
of the Lord. His ideal for us may be 
compared to those rocky basins hollowed 
out by a perpetual fall of water, and 
lined by an infinite variety of exquisite 
vegetation, into which the fullness of 
the river, fed from perennial springs, is 





Gbe ©verflowin^ Cup 

ever overflowing; and from which the 
overflow is ever passing out in a con- 
stant stream to join the eddying currents, 
to fill some lesser bowl beneath, or to 
play some part in fertilizing the mul- 
titudinous flowers and plants which 
stretch out eager roots to its nourishing 
tide. Let us not hoard what we have 
got. Let us freely permit our cups to 
run over. Far from us be the niggard- 
liness of the miser who dares not give 
because he fears he will not get. Let 
us be prodigal and spendthrift of our 
wealth ; for we know that it is inex- 
haustible, being supplied from our 
Father's hand ; and one of the laws of 
His kingdom is that we receive in the 
precise proportion with which we give. 
One last word : be sure to take the C7ip 
of salvation. There can be no greater 
slight to a giver than to have his gifts 




Cbe Sbepberfc psalm 






v 



neglected. Yet how many cups God 
sets before us which we refuse to taste ! 
Some appear to think that God does 
not mean them to be thoroughly happy ; 
and if they drink their cups of joy, it 
must be on the sly or with words of 
apology. Some only drink half; or if 
they drink all they instil some bitter 
ingredient of their own, lest the draft 
should be too delicious. How often 
we forget that God has given us all 
things richly to enjoy ! And when we 
are sure that He has given us aught, let 
us not shrink from taking the cup from 
His hand. Sometimes we have not 
because we are too blind to see, or too 
slow to take the cups which God is pre- 
paring for us. 

And as we drink let us be sure to 
call u 'pon the name of the Lord. Full 
often, if we dare to do so, we shall find 





Zbe Overflowing Cup 





^a# 



that the bitter medicine which fright 
us has been suddenly changed into the^ 
very wine of life. There is an old 
legend of an ancient cup filled with 
poison and treacherously placed into the 
king's hand. He signed the sign of the 
cross, and named the name of God, and 
it shivered at his feet. So take the 
name of God as your test. Name it 
over the cups which allure you ere you 
raise them to your lips, be they friend- 
ships, schemes, plans, business. That 
name will either show the adder that 
lurks in their heart, as in the goblet of 
the old Egyptian feast, or it will trans- 
mute common things to sacramental 
use, and make ordinary cups like that 
which we use at the table of our Lord,\\\ 
when over it have been spoken jtrK^e 
memorable words, " This do in 
brance of Me." 






XI 



®l)e (tdestial Escort 

" Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
All the days of my life." 

"All the days." What days may 
not come ? Spring days, when all the 
world shall be full of glad young life — 

licking in the fields ; caroling in the 
skies ; bursting into leaf and flower at 
our feet. Summer days, in which the 
year shall have reached its glorious 
prime, with golden light and long- 
drawn-out evenings and balmy nights. 
Autumn days, when the fields shall be 
filled with sheaves of corn, while busy 
hands tear from orchard boughs and 
162 




ftbe Celestial Bscort 

trailing vines and towering hop-plants 
the rich produce of the year. Winter 
days, in which the foot shall tread down 
the crackling leaves that carpet the for- 
est glade ; days of mist and rain and 
somber light, when we gather round the 
bier of the departed glory of the year, 
and lay it to the dust. 

We sometimes stand, as it were, on 
the brow of an overhanging hill, peering 
wonderingly into the valley at our feet, 
and asking what kind of days lie there, 
enveloped in the impenetrable mists, 
which only part as we advance. What 
lies in the course of the years? Will 
the days be golden, lit by heaven's 
warm, sunny glow? Will they be red- 
letter, not only in the usual sense of the 
word, but because stained with the 
blood of suffering and sacrifice? Will 
they be drab, attired in somber tints, 





164 



Gbe SbepberD ipealm 



dark and sad ? Birthdays ; death-days ; 
marriage- days ; anniversaries of a dead 
past, which refuses to be forgotten ; 
fast-days; feast-days; saint-days, be- 
cause associated with some whom we 
have known and loved as the very elect 
of God. Only a few short hours — like 
the flash of a revolving light seen far 
out at sea between tw T o long pauses of 
black darkness ; or like a diamond set 
in ebony — and yet how much of weal 
or woe, of bitter memory or eager 
foreboding, may be crowded into one 
brief space of time which we call a 

But there never will come a day 
throughout all the future in which we 
shall not have the two guardian angels, 
heavenly escorts, and God-sent mes- 
sengers, Goodness and Mercy, who have 
been told off and commissioned to at- 





Gbe Celestial Bscort 



165 



tend the believer during all the days of 
his earthly pilgrimage. 

When, benumbed with cold and be- 
wildered with the mist which has sud- 
denly settled down upon his track, the 
traveler across the highland moor sinks 
down exhausted on the drenched her- 
bage, what an infinite comfort it is, 
through a momentary rent in the mist, 
to get a glimpse of the plaided figure 
of a shepherd close beside him ; or to 
discover two servants from the distant 
paternal home, sent out to scour the 
hills in search of the missing one, and 
to bring him safely to its shelter and 
warmth ! But it is in some such way 
as this that the eye of the believer may 
detect, in moments of weariness and 
solitude, the presence of those twin 
angels of God, GOODNESS and Mercy. 

We have never seen angels like the 





166 



Zbc Sbepberfc ftsalm 




two that came to Sodom ; nor even 
their effigies, like the two angelic forms 
which bent over the ark in the inner 
shrine of the holy tent. But we can 
imagine their pure faces, their ethereal 
forms, their gentle ways. But here is 
something better than angel help : the 
personified attributes of God, His good- 
ness, His mercy ; that is, Himself, in all 
the tenderest manifestations of His love 
and pity toward men. 

Goodness AND Mercy. Not goodness 
alone, for we are sinners needing for- 
giveness. Not mercy alone, for we 
need many things besides forgiveness. 
But each with the other linked. Good- 
ness to supply every want, mercy to 
^forgive every sin ; goodness to provide, 
||3Tiercy to pardon. David often links 
ese two together, as when he says, 
" The Lord is good ; His mercy is ever- 





XLhe Celestial Bscort 



161 



lasting." What shall we say of these 
blessed attributes? Take Goodness. It 
is laid up in vast reservoirs in the nature 
of God ; prepared for the poor, the food 
of the hungry, the lodge of the right- 
eous, the crown of the year, the very 
sun of life. " O taste and see that 
the Lord is good." " How great is 
His goodness, and how greatois^ His 
beauty!" 



Take Mercy. She is the daughter v~ v 
God: His delight— "He delighteih fnp 
mercy; " His wealth — "He is rich in^ 
mercy; " His throne — "/ will commune 
with thee from off the mercy-seat." 
Who shall count the rays that sparkle 
from this jewel! Tender, plenteous, 
sure, everlasting. Truly our Lord might 
say, "Your Father is merciful." 

And they shall follow. In the East 
the shepherd always goes in front. 





£be SbepberD jpsalm 

And our Good Shepherd never puts us 
forth to the work or warfare of any day 
without going before us. But His 
shepherd dogs bring up the rear. We 
have a rear-guard against the attack of 
our treacherous foes. We have two 
strong helpers to lift us from tier to tier 
of the pyramid of life, keeping us from 
falling backward, whispering words of 
comfort, and placing strong hands under 
our arms in circumstances of difficulty 
and stumbling. 

In that word "follow" is it possible 
that there is a suggestion that we are 
going away from God, and that He 
sends His goodness and mercy after us 
to call us back? It may be so. If a 
prodigal leaves a widowed mother for 
the sea, she never forgets him ; her 
prayers and tears and loving thoughts 
follow him ; and to win him back she 




■u'<*. 




Gbe Celestial Bscort 



169 



sends out only the tenderest yearnings 
of a heart almost crushed. Even so 
with God and His own ; they may wan- 
der from Him, but He follows them, He 
sets Goodness and Mercy on their track. 
Sometimes it seems as if disaster on 
disaster, stroke on stroke, pursues them ; 
but it is not really so. Things are not 
always as they seem. And these are 
but the disguises which Goodness and 
Mercy assume ; their outer garb, pro- 
tecting the delicate woolen garments 
which are prepared for the weary head 
and tired limbs of the wearied, wander- 
ing, starved, and ragged prodigal. He 
will not break off His kindness, nor 
suffer His faithfulness to fail, nor for- 
sake the works of His hands ; for ff His 
mercy endureth forever." 

You have only to turn round, or to 
swoon backward, and you will find 




170 



Gbe SbepbecD psalm 




yourself caught in the arms of God's 
goodness and mercy, which are follow- 
ing you always. You may not realize 
that they are near ; you may feel lonely 
and sad and desolate ; it may be one of 
your bad days, sunless and dreary, with- 
out a ray of comfort or a flash of hope, 
surrounded by objects and forms of 
dread. Yet there, close by you, evident 
to God's angels though veiled from 
your faithless sight, stand the glorious, 
loving, pitying forms of God's infinite 
goodness, which cannot fail, and His 
tender mercy. They will spread you 
a table in the desert as they did for 
Elijah ; or they will flash through the 
storm and stand beside you, bidding 
you fear not, as they did for Paul. 

" Though unperceived by mortal sense, 
Faith sees them always near, 
A Guide, a Glory, a Defense : 
Then what have you to fear ? " 



W *- 



^^ 




Gbe Celestial Bsccrt 



171 



And in such hopes there need be no 
element of doubt. "Surely" says the 
psalmist. Why so sure? Because God 
is God, unchangeable and everlasting ; 
He cannot withdraw what He has once 
given. If we believe not, He abideth 
faithful ; He cannot deny Himself. His 
gifts are without repentance. The Giver 
of every good and perfect gift is also 
the Father of lights, with whom can be 
no variation, neither shadow cast by 
turning. And when once He has begun 
to follow us in goodness and mercy we 
may wander from His paths and neglect 
His love and do despite to His Spirit, 
ignore the presence of His messengers, 
and bid them begone ; and yet they will 
not remove. They may follow at a 
greater distance, but they will follow 
still, never satisfied till they have won 
us back to Himself. 




172 



Gbe Sbepberfc psalm 



Surely, because God has never failed 
in the past. Surely, because it would 
not become Him to take in hand and 
not complete. Surely, because He has 
pledged Himself by exceeding great and 
precious promises. Surely, because the 
united testimony of all His saints attests 
that He never fails or forsakes. Surely, 
because if He has set His love on us in 
eternit)/, He is not likely to forget us in 
time. So surely shall never a day come 
in our earthly pilgrimage in which God 
shall not be at our side in goodnjsss and 





mercy. 

Instead of surely, some commentators 
make it only. " Only goodness and 
mercy shall follow me." Just as in the 
Seventy-third Psalm they read, " God 
is good, and only good " — nothing but 
good — " to Israel, even to such as are 





Gbe Celestial JEscort 

of a clean heart." It may be so; and 
it is certainly a fact that God's dealings 
with us are never anything less than 
good and merciful. They may not 
seem so ; but it is sometimes a greater 
test of love to withhold than to give ; 
to deny than to consent ; to take away 
than to crowd the bosom full of over- 
flowing benefits. 

Fearful and fainting hearts, dreading 
the dark way alone, take heart ; gird 
yourselves with new courage ; lift up 
the hands which hang down, and con- 
firm the feeble knees ! God knows how 
many days of life remain ; He knows 
their needs, their temptations, and their 
sorrows ; and He pledges Himself that 
as the day, so shall be the strength ; that 
the day shall never come which shall be 
unblessed with His goodness and mercy ; 





174 



Gbe Sbepbevfc psalm 



and that He Himself, in the person of 
the blessed Lord, will be with us all 
the days, " even unto the end of the 






11 V 



XII 



"&t)t tyomc of t\)z £orb foxcvtx" 



The passing of the years awakens in 
our hearts the cry for permanence. Our 
nature is keyed, not to the temporal, but 
to the eternal. And as we see the 
leaves falling before the autumn winds 
or littering the forest glade down which 
we walk in the short winter days, as 
the changes of the natural world compel 
us to remember the still greater ones 
which are ever carrying us out of the 
familiar world of our past into one as 
strange and undiscovered as the new 
world to which Columbus sailed, there 





% 



w& 



176 



Gbe SbepbevD psalm 



arises up within us a passionate desire 
for a home which death cannot invade ; 
friendships which time cannot impair ; 
chaplets of never- withering flowers ; and 
a condition of existence which is im- 
pervious to change. 

This permanence for which we wait 
seems promised in the words with which 
the shepherd minstrel closes the psalm, 
which are simple as the words " home " 
and " mother," and quite as full of 
meaning. The course of the psalm is 
as full of change as life itself. Every 
sentence is a word-picture, painting in 
strong and vivid outlines some new 
scene in our earthly pilgrimage. But 
here the troubled stream, broken over 
many a stone, driven to and fro in man}- 
a sinuous bend, seems to fall into the 
great deep of the ocean, eternity, the 
music of whose waves, as they break on 





Gbe Ibouse of tbe Xoro" 



177 



the shores of time, is always in the same 
sweet monotone, "Forever." 

No doubt the changes of our mortal 
life are all needed to fit us for the 
changeless. Time is the necessary 
vestibule or robing- room for eternity. 
Earth is the training-house for the real 
life which awaits us when the last lesson 
is learned and the school-bell rings. 
But all that is, and has been, and shall 
be, is just completing our character, 
adding finishing touches to our sym- 
metry ; and all shall be forgotten, as a 
dream of the night, when once we have 
entered on that eternity, which is per- 
manent in the sense of never taking 
from us any of our true possessions, 
except to complete them ; or in the 
same way that the seed is taken away, 
when from it is developed a higher and 
ever higher growth. 






J- 




Cbe Sbepberfc psalm 

But better than the thought of per- 
manence is the thought that heaven is a 
HOME — it is " the house of the Lord," 
which is the nearest approach possible 
in the Old Testament to the words of 
Jesus : <f In My Father's house are 
many mansions." 

What a magic power there is in that 
word " home " ! It will draw the wan- 
derer from the ends of the earth. It 
will nerve sailor and soldier and explorer 
to heroic endurance. It will melt with 
its dear memories the hardened criminal. 
It will bring a film of tears over the 
eyes of the man of the world. What 
will not a charwoman do or bear if only 
she can keep her little home together ? 

" Be it ever so humble, 
There's no place like home." 

And what is our great Christmas 
festival but the festival of home? 




Gbe Hxmse ot tbe XorO 



179 









9, 



w* 



Homes which have sprung into exis- 
tence at the summons of One who was 
homeless fitly celebrate their anniver- 
sary on His natal day. 

And what is it that makes the idea of 
home so fond ? Xot the mere locality, 
or the bricks and mortar ; the gardens 
where childhood used to hide ; the fur- 
niture which is associated with tender 
memories — any of which the sight of it 
will immediately educe. No ! it is not 
these that make home. These without 
the beloved forms which used to occupy 
them would be a solitude in which the 
survivor would find it impossible to 
remain. We find our home where 
father, mother, brothers, and sisters, the 
wife and children are ; where the pres- 
ence of the stranger throws no shadow 
over the unrestrained play of family 
life. 




w 



\4 



^ 






180 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 




Now let us turn our thoughts to that 
heaven of which we know comparatively 
so little, except that our Good Shepherd 
is gone thither; and see what light is 
thrown upon it by the comparison insti- 
tuted here between it and home. It is 
surely home in the sense of its happy 
social life. We shall be as free in the 
presence of God as children are in the 
presence of the father and mother whom 
they tenderly love. We shall know 
each other as well, and converse with 
each other as freely, as we have done 
with the merry throng of bright young- 
hearts with whom we have sauntered in 
the woodlands gathering wild- flowers ; 
or have gathered around the blazing 
fire, when the yule log crackled and the 
Christmas glee was at its height. Think 
of the large family of noble children of 
all ages — from the little child of six up 




"Zhc Ibouse of tbe Xoro" 

to the young man just beginning his 
professional or city life in the great 
metropolis — all gathering to spend a 
time together in the ancestral hall, 
standing amid its far-reaching grounds ; 
and you will have some faint conception 
of what the home-going will be, when, 
amid the welcoming shouts and songs 
of angel harps, the last child reaches 
the Father's house, and the whole family 
in heaven and earth is gathered in the 
Father's house forever and forever. 
Never again to part! Never again to 
go out! Never again to break up the 
long, happy, and glorious home festival! 
These words may be read by lonely 
ones in all parts of the world, over 
whom there steals at times a strange 
homesickness : 




And the sound of a voice that is still ! " *#§fi!Nt \ 



" Oh for the touch of a vanished hand, ^ ? r\ 



n-y 



182 




" Oh to be little children again, and to 
have others providing for our comfort 
and our joy, instead of having to fend 
for ourselves, and to be the source of 
all to others!" And mingling with 
such natural back-yearnings there may 
be the tears of recent bereavement ; the 
thought of graves so new that the flowers 
have not had time to root themselves in 
the fresh soil. Ja* 

Come, it will not do for ust?> indulge 
thoughts like these! Thev unfit us for 
the stern realities of life. They unnerve 
us. Let us not dwell on them. If the 
paradise of the past is lost, so that an 
angel stands with drawn sword forbid- 
ding our return, there is another and a 
better paradise before us, at whose gates 
beckoning angels stand — the paradise of 
our Father's home. Let us not think of 
separation, but of reunion. In olden 



^ 



I 
JUL 

w 






Ml 



Gbe Ibouse of tbe Xoro 



183 



days the crews of outgoing vessels, till 
they reached the line, used to toast 
Friends behind; but as soon as they had 
passed it they began to toast Friends 
before. Let us set our thoughts on the 
friends before us, who, thank God, are 
those whom " we have loved long since 
and lost awhile." 

Blessed are the homesick, for they 
shall reach home! 

There is great certainty in these words. 
The psalmist has no doubt that he will 
be there. Yet he had been a wander- 
ing sheep ; his record by no means 
stainless ; his temper rather that of a 
man of war and blood than that of peace 
and gentleness and love which would 
befit the meek denizen of heaven. How 
should he come there ? And what made 
him so sure? He doubtless felt the 
the Good Shepherd could not be therej, ' ; * 




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<r<&xys£> 



184 



4 



Cbe SbepberD ipsalm 




while the sheep was bleating piteously 
without. " Where I am, there ye shall 
be also." And we have a yet more 
sure word of promise to which we may 
joyfully take heed as to a light which 
shines in a dark place. 

Because we have trusted Christ and 
are one with Him ; because we have 
received into our hearts the germ of 
eternal life, which carries with it heaven 
in embryo ; because we have the earnest 
of our inheritance already in the pres- 
ence and witness of the Holy Ghost ; 
because God's promise and oath assure 
us of our eternal blessedness, two things 
which make disappointment impossible 
— for all these reasons and others the 
humblest, most timid, and weakest be- 
liever that reads these lines may dare 
^affirm, " I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever." 





"Zbe Ibouse of tbe Xoro" i85 u 

^ — i; 

There seems to have been a sense iiC~ O^SAp 



which David enjoyed heaven before he 
got there. To him the Lord's house 
was not simply a thing of the future, 
but a possibility for the present. In 
another psalm he talks of dwelling in 
the secret place of the Most High, and 
in yet another he employs the noble 
words, " One thing have I desired of 
the Lord, that will I seek after; that I 
may dwell in the house of the Lord all 
the days of my life, to behold the beauty 
of the Lord, and to inquire in His tem- 
ple. ' ' The French version of Dr. Segond 
is so beautiful that I am compelled to 
quote it also : " Je demande a V Eternel 
line chose, que je desire ardennnent Je 
vondrais habiter toute ma vie dans la 
maison de V Eternel, pour contempler la 
magnificence de I Eternel et pour admirer 
son temple." (Ps. xxvii. 4.) But this 



i^& ; ■ 






^M: 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 

man was full of royal business ; he could 
not literally dwell in the sacred courts, 
for which he pined more than hart ever 
panted for water-brooks, or doves for 
their cotes. 

Yet can we doubt that his fervent 

prayer was answered, and that the fixed 

purpose of his heart reached its ideal? 

There was, no doubt, a sense in which, 

whether at home in the palace of Mount 

Zion, or away in the desolate wastes 

beyond Jordan, he did dwell in the 

house of the Lord, beholding His beauty 

(j/f/ji and inquiring His will. What is the 

W/ijlL house of God but the presence of God, 

jjwir habitually recognized by the loving and 

'i|f%^- believing spirit; all-encompassing, all- 

'^tf J|r enve l P m g"> all-pervasive, like the genial 



-atmosphere of spring! 

Why should not we also begin to live 
- in the ho?ise of God, in this hallowed 

_5 






"Cbe Douse of tbe 3Loro" 



181 



and blessed sense ? Our heaven may 
thus date, not from the moment in which 
we first " enter the gates of the city," 
but from that in which we first wash 
our robes and make them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. Always and every- 
where we may find our dwelling-place 
in God, who has been the home and 
refuge and abiding-place of His people 
in all generations. Always and every- 
where we may retreat into Him from 
the windy storm and tempest. Always 
and everywhere we may make His 
nature not only our fortress and strong 
tower, but our oratory, our temple. 
May the Holy Spirit make real to each 
of us this possibility of living in the 
house of the Lord hourly and daily ; 
where all tears are wiped as soon as 
shed ; whither cares cannot invade ; and 
where the Good Shephejd leads His 





Gbe SbepberD psalm 

flock ever into green pastures, so that 
they cannot hunger; and beside still 
waters, so that they cannot thirst; and 
in cool, deep glens, so that the sun can- 
not smite by day, nor the moon by 
night ! Heaven before we reach heaven ! 

Let us see to it that zve live on this 
heavenly level. There are many possible 
levels on which we may elect to live. 
That, for instance, of the church to 
which we belong, or the Christian society 
in w T hich w r e mix. The conventional 
level of doing what others do, and being 
content with an average mediocrity. 
This, however, ill becomes those who 
follow on to apprehend that for which 
Jesus Christ once apprehended them. 

But there are two other levels which 
especially claim our thought, and be- 
tween which we must make our choice : 
there is the level of our standing in 



* 



"Gbe Ibouse of tbe Xoro 



189 




Jesus Christ, and there is the level of 
our experience or emotional life. Ac- 
cording to the first we have already 
passed through death to the resurrection 
and ascension side, and are already 
seated in the golden light which beats 
around the throne of Jesus. According 
to the other, which fluctuates with every 
atmospheric or physical change, we are 
now lifted on the crest of the billow 
into the sunny air, and anon flung, 
weary and broken, on the sand, from 
which the waves have ebbed, leaving us 
beyond their reach. 

The one is the level on which God 
means us to live. The other is that 
which we have selected for ourselves — 
and a sorry change it is ! What wonder 
that we are so disappointed and dis- 
heartened ! We have put the bitter 
for the sweet; the temporal for the, 






^M^^mk 





190 



Gbe SbepberD psalm 



Y> 




eternal ; the fluctuating and transient 
for God's unmoved and immovable 
foundation, which is changeless as His 

It is a serious question for each one 
to ask, " What is the level of my life ? 
Is it mine, or my neighbor's, or God's? 
Am I living as a risen and ascended 
one, behind whom is sin and death, 
while above is the uncreated light of 
eternity?" Alas! so many of us are 
leveling our appreciation of our standing 
down to the lowness of our experience, 
instead of seeking to level our experience 
and practice up to the height of our 
standing in Jesus! 

Now faith when in proper exercise 
does two things. First, it reckons that 
a position belongs to it which we do 
not feel, but which it dares to claim on 
the warrant of God's Word. Second, it 








"Zhe Ibouse of tbe Xoro 

lays hold on the power of God to make 
that position a reality in daily and 
hourly experience. 

We do not always feel that we are 
where the burning words of the Apostle 
declare us to be. In Romans vi., 
Ephesians ii., and Colossians iii. he 
affirms that we are risen and enthroned, 
regnant with Jesus, while His foes and 
ours are beneath our feet. But faith 
lays hold of these clear teachings of the 
Word of God and dares to call feeling 
a liar, while it holds God's Word as 
truth. Yea, and faith goes further. 
Constantly it lays hold on the almighty 
power of God, the power that raised 
Jesus from the grave of Joseph to set 
Him at the right hand of the Majesty in 
the heavens. And in the might of that 
power it walks across the unstable wave 
and climbs the steeps of air, and holds 





192 Cbe Sbepberd fl>salm 

its own, its position as on the throne, 
against all the assaults of hell. It is 
impossible to live the ascension or 
heavenly life, which is certainly ours, 
without ascension and divine power. 
But that is within the reach of an 
appropriating faith. (Eph. i. 19.) 

It is very needful for us to invoke the 
aid of the Holy Spirit to maintain us 
ever in this attitude of surrender and 
faith, drawing down into our lives God's 
constant grace. He is the Spirit of 
memory, who preserves us in a con- 
tinual state of recollection, and who 
prompts us at the hour of temptation, 
*- bringingti^Ul thmg§_to our remem- 

And if only we live thus, life will pass 
on happily and usefully. Its stay will 
shape itself into a psalm, like that which 
David, the shepherd and king, sang cen- 




"Zhe Ibouse of tbe %ovb 



193 



turies ago. It may begin with the tale 
of the shepherd's care for a lost and 
truant sheep. But it will not stay ever 
on that level ; it will mount and soar * 
and sing near heaven's gate ; it will 
spend its days on the level of those 
shining table-lands where God Himself 
is Sun ; and it will finally pass into that 
holy and glorious home circle, each in- 
habitant of which may affirm, without 
the least shadow of presumption or of 
fear, " I will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever." 





JOHN T. MILLER, PRINTER 

52-54 LAFAYETTE PLACE 

NEW YORK 















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